Decapitating al-Qaida in Iraq

This editorial is by Dale McFeatters of Scripps Howard News Service:

The timing was certainly fortuitous. In an interview Sunday, Gen. Ray Odierno, the U.S. commander in Iraq, said he was confident that the U.S. withdrawal would proceed on schedule with 45,000 troops leaving by the end of August, when the U.S. will no longer be conducting combat operations.

One of the reasons for Odierno's confidence, he said, was a steady and significant degrading of al-Qaida in Iraq, or AQI. On Sunday, that Islamic terrorist group was degraded even further in what Odierno called "potentially the most significant blow to AQI since the beginning of the insurgency."

The blow came when Iraqi forces, backed by the U.S., killed Abu Ayyub al-Masri, who in 2006 replaced his slain predecessor, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, as military commander of AQI. Also killed was Abu Umar al-Baghdadi, who fancied himself "Prince of the Faithful" and would have been leader of the Islamic State of Iraq if AQI had ever taken over. Masri's deputy and al-Baghdadi's son were also killed and an additional 16 suspected AQI operatives were taken prisoner.

AQI replacements spring up like weeds but the organization never really recovered from the 2006 loss of al-Zarqawi, and it's likely that a diminished AQI will never wholly rebuild itself from the loss of al-Masri and al-Baghdadi Sunday.

With the departure of the 45,000 this summer, the U.S. presence will be reduced to 50,000 and these, with the exception of some training staff, are to be gone by the end of 2011. After more than eight years, an operation that was to last only two or three will be finished.

At that time the world can judge whether the Bush administration's criteria for success in Iraq have been met: A nation that can protect itself and support itself economically. A free and responsive democracy that will advance the cause of freedom and democracy in the Mideast. A strong and capable ally in the war on terror. One should also add, a privatized oil industry with strong participation by Western companies. And, of course, no weapons of mass destruction.