Dispatch from the Razor's Edge, the Blog of Michael Stephen Fuchs
2008.06.03 : The End is Nigh
Is The Iraq War Winding Down?
"Don't forget that human beings have a responsibility to one another and that Americans will always have a responsibility to the oppressed."
- Mark Daily

In his most recent disptach, Michael Yon speculates that the war in Iraq may be winding down:

    At this rate it is entirely conceivable that at the end of 2008 we will be able to say, in good conscience, that the Iraq war has ended.

Al-Qaeda continues to be hammered into the dirt. The Iraqi Army has demonstrated great competence and are at the forefront of destroying al-Qaeda.

     Violence in Iraq is reaching an all time low, perhaps lower than at anytime in several decades. Iraq and its people have been ravaged by decades of war. Finally they are getting their chance at freedom thanks to the sacrifice of the men and women who have set them free from tyrants. With any luck, on my next trip to Iraq I will see little to no combat.

According to Reuters, U.S. troop deaths in Iraq have fallen to their lowest level since the 2003 invasion. That's the lowest – ever. Improved security has also helped boost oil production to a post-war high.

The Washington Post has a lovely photo essay of Basra's 3 million residents "resuming lives that had been interrupted by an austere interpretation of Islam" after the Iraqi government and military have rooted out religious militias. Beautiful pictures of beautiful, real people.

Al Qaeda web sites are abuzz about "why we lost in Iraq". According to their own postings, their collapse in Iraq was steep and catastrophic. Today, al Qaeda has been shattered, with most of its leadership and foot soldiers dead, captured or moved out of Iraq.

And, finally, the Weekly Standard reports even more far-reaching good news in the war on terror: "The number of Islamist attacks worldwide has declined precipitously since 2004. What once seemed a war between jihadists and the West is now a war between jihadists and Muslims who reject terrorism. Bin Laden is close to losing this fight on his central front."


  al qaeda     iraq     the long war     the military  
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Dispatch from the Razor's Edge is owned and operated by novelist, technologist, vegan, exercise junkie, classical liberal, rambler, and Londoner Michael Stephen Fuchs.

photo of Michael Stephen Fuchs

Fuchs is the author of the novels The Manuscript and Pandora's Sisters, both published worldwide by Macmillan in hardback, paperback and all e-book formats (and in translation); the D-Boys series of high-tech, high-concept, spec-ops military adventure novels – D-Boys, Counter-Assault, and Close Quarters Battle (coming in 2016); and is co-author, with Glynn James, of the bestselling Arisen series of special-operations military ZA novels. The second nicest thing anyone has ever said about his work was: "Fuchs seems to operate on the narrative principle of 'when in doubt put in a firefight'." (Kirkus Reviews, more here.)

Fuchs was born in New York; schooled in Virginia (UVa); and later emigrated to the San Francisco Bay Area, where he lived through the dot-com boom. Subsequently he decamped for an extended period of tramping before finally rocking up in London, where he now makes his home. He does a lot of travel blogging, most recently of some very  long  walks around the British Isles. He's been writing and developing for the web since 1994 and shows no particularly hopeful signs of stopping.

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ARISEN : Operators, Volume I - The Fall of the Third Temple by Michael Stephen Fuchs
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