Ongoings Here

This article from the Stars and Stripes talks a little bit about what is going on here. For those of you who don't want to read the article I will highlight just a few parts of the article:

"It is inconceivable to me that al-Qaida would ever get a foothold back here in Anbar. They’re so distrusted by the people,"said Maj. Gen. John F. Kelly, who relinquished command of Multi National Force-West on Monday to Maj. Gen. R.T. Tryon during a ceremony at Al Asad Air Base.

U.S. troops took down 400 checkpoints between February and April 2008 during Operation Rudy Giuliani, named after the former New York City mayor’s effort to curb crime by getting rid of visible signs of criminal activity, like graffiti. When Marines disassembled one of the largest checkpoints between Ramadi and Fallujah, a thousand Iraqis showed up to watch the barbed wire go down, he said.
"I think that’s when they began to understand, this thing is won," Kelly said.

I'm not going to say anything else at this point but I definately have opinions about those quotes. I guess it will be interesting to see what happens with the new administration in the US and possible exit strategies.