Even though the Times puts the story on A6, and attempts to mix the bad in with the good, can you imagine a story like this a year ago? First, it might not have been possible, and second, the Times was still trying to tear the mission down
Bombs go off infrequently now in Samarra, and they are mostly small, nothing like the massive explosion that two years ago toppled the golden dome of the famous Askariya Shrine in this ancient city, setting off a wave of sectarian bloodletting across Iraq.
A bakery and a shawarma shop recently opened in a heavily guarded central neighborhood. Earlier this week, dozens of children rode a creaky Ferris wheel and took wagon rides on a downtown street to celebrate Id al-Fitr, the holiday that marks the end of Ramadan.
The Askariya Shrine is slowly being rebuilt. This week, for the first time in two years, hundreds of worshipers attended morning prayers for Id al-Fitr under the delicately blue-tiled dome of the mosque next door.
The violence that once raged throughout the overwhelmingly Sunni city has quieted in the last few months. In August there were only nine small weapons attacks, compared with 44 last November, according to the American military. One homemade bomb exploded in August. Last November there were 13. The curfew for residents has been pushed back to midnight or even later if there are religious events.
Wait, that means The Surge………..worked. I’ll admit, it was years past time to implement, but, who was for it, giving Operation Iraqi Freedom a chance to give the US and all the Coalition partners a chance to walk away with a win, and who just wanted to walk away?
