Our Heroes in Iraq

Michael Yon, who has a book coming out, reporting from his embed with courageous Kiowa pilots killing terrorists--Guitar Heroes--the last stand of al Qaeda in Iraq. One of the pilot fighters is a woman named Susan. Incredibly gripping prose and pictures, with this aside:

Great care is taken before the permission to fire a missile is issued. Since 2005, I’ve seen many enemy get away because commanders were being extremely careful to avoid civilian deaths and injuries. I’m just a writer and observer, but must say it can be frustrating even for me to see armed terrorists getting away, when I am thinking, “Take the shot for chrissakes!!!! There’s not a civilian within 300 yards!!!” Only once did I see a helicopter missile strike ordered that I thought was over the top, and that was a couple years ago. Yet, in reality, this ever-increasing willingness to let a few bad guys get away has played a huge part of turning this war around, and ultimately saving the lives of civilians and, paradoxically, Americans.

Rich Lowry's Re-Liberators, National Review's cover story. One vignette:

Gen. Mark Hertling, who commands American forces in the north of Iraq, recalls being introduced in the nearby village of Himbus to a twelve-year-old girl who had pointed out where the Qaeda thugs were hiding. “I asked her why she had done that,” General Hertling explains, “and she said, ‘They were riding up and down the roads on mopeds shooting in the air. They killed my two brothers, my father couldn’t farm, and I couldn’t go to school.’

And this:

Before he lets his American visitors leave, Hassen Nssaif Jasim insists — fixing us with a glare and twice asking if he can rely on us — that we take home a message: “We are very serious, and we are going to go all the way to the end of the path. We don’t want you to leave."

In the Weekly Standard, Frederick and Kimberley Kagan on the Patton of our day, General Ray Odierno and translation of the Petraeus doctrine into a winning strategy.