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Show Saturday, February 9, 200S DAILY HERALD ITOMAIS A5 EDITORIAL BOARD 4 Publisher Randy Wright, Executive Editor Jim Tynen, Editorial Page Editor Craig Dennis, President Dmltj$iHcmt& RICH LOWRY Capitalize on the " surge in Jraq Rich Lowry momentum" that will make the second liberation more enduring than the first, even as the U.S. beIraq as gins to draw down the additional one brigades of the surge. scoffed-a- t It should be the the Iraq Iraqi central government contractof ing with people like the doctor.. glib assurances of success belied" It can't (out of incompetence) or by reality. But a top U.S. general won't (out of sectarian motives). here plays on the phrase in deWorse, the doctor's brother has been detained by government sescribing security gains during the past year. "In some ways," he curity services without charge for says, "our soldiers have come to months, even though the Ameribe seen as cans have worked to have him The neologism seems apt in released. "We've had an American the crisp, cool dusk of a Saturday awakening and a Sunni awakenevening in a Sunni ing," he says, referring to neighborhood here in the surge and the Sunni the Dora section of this The turn away from the insurquestion gency. city. "Now we need a American soldiers, now is government awakening." who a few months ago The central whether the ment hasn't governcouldn't venture here attempted without being shot at, to consolidate change enhanced are mobbed by clamorbubbling from below. ing children as soon security will There are 80,000 mostly as they leave their veharden into Sunni security volunteers hicles. Stores are open seeking integration into on a street that was de"irreversible official security forces serted just months ago. or transition into civilian The median strip, once momentum" jobs. There are volunteer teachers like those regularly implanted that will with improvised expetitioning the American plosives, is spruced up make the captain who await govwith fresh brickwork. ernment salaries. Yet the second An American captain government has left bil'the mayor" of the lions of dollars in revenue liberation is neighborhood unspent. Prime Minister Nouri has talked greeted by name by an more about creating a $1 bilIraqi boy who runs up to shake his hand, and lion jobs program, but enduring two women approach even if he wants to follow than first. the him to ask about being through, moving such a hired by the Iraqi gov- sum through the dysfuncernment as teachers. tional Iraqi bureaucracy The neighborhood is a gargantuan task. is a showcase of a In the meantime, we fill the gap, in keeping with the counterinsurgency campaign that has emphasized securing the military's axiom that "money is ammunition." The $300 a month population and getting to know local players. "We live in the neigh- we pay to security volunteers is borhood," explains CoL Ricky filtering down into local econoGibbs. "How did we get there? mies. Commanders use discreWe moved to the sound of the tionary funds at their disposal to contract for services and provide guns." It took months of combat for his troops to roust and seed money for businesses. "I establish outposts in his section can't spend it fast enough," Col. of the city. Once it became clear Gibbs says. This CERP that the Americans weren't going funding will run out in the sumanywhere, "the people came out in mer, and Gen. Petraeus is asking droves." for $480 million more of it. ConThe Army has contracted with gress would be scandalously foolish to reject him. an influential (and very brave) loin cal Everyone acknowledges that the neighborhood for road repairs, Iraq's progress is fragile. The trash pickup and electricity country is still violent, All of which means local hasn't been totally vanquished, and the Shia south has its own alarmjobs. The doctor sounds like the U.S. general when he comments, ing problems. But we have to try "This is the second time you have to capitalize on the opportunities liberated this country." created by the surge. There's not The question now is whether going to be a third liberation. the enhanced security will harden in a phrase the U.S. military I Rich Lowry is editor of the into "irreversible National Review uses often now BAGHDAD, d The battle for hope 'US8 "When everything seemed to go wrong for him last year, I told people, 'Never write John McCain off." - Arizona Gov. Janet Napoli-tana Democrat "I've never seen anything like this. This is bigger than Kennedy. Obama comes along, and he seems to have the answers. This is the New Testament." - Commentator Chris Mat- thews, on the Illinois senator's popularity. "Perhaps it's my atheism at work but I found myself increasingly wary of and resistant to the salvational fervor of the Obama campaign, the idealistic zeal divorced from any particular policy or cause and chariot-drive- n by pure euphoria." - Writer James Wolcott gen-erati- Beehives & Pr Buffalo Chips tons of nuclear waste from a site near Moab. The uranium tailings at the edge of the Colorado River threaten the drinking water of Buffalo Chip to the Utah "justice" system for turn- ing loose a predator who terrorized BYU. Luis Alonso Rivera was convicted in 1998 for the kidnapping and sexual assault of a student and the attempted abduction of two others, crimes still remembered on campus. He'll be deported to his native Honduras, but given the porous borders, he could return. One suggestion: Leave Rivera in prison till the campus area where he preyed on women is no longer called "Rape HilL" 30 million people. The project, originally slated to be finished by 2012, now won't be done until 2025, if then. Bureaucrats say they don't have enough money. There's a remedy for that. We urge all members of Congress from Utah and other areas threatened by this pollution to block their colleagues' pork-barrprojects. Beehive to employees of FirstWest Benefit Solutions in Orem for spending Martin Luther King Jr. Day helping others. The workers teamed with Volunteers of America to help turn space at Fourth Street Clinic in Salt Lake into a storage warehouse for donated goods and also an office for Volunteers of America. People '4k- - working together is what commu- nity action is all about. Buffalo Chip to the U.S. Energy Department for in connection with the removal of 16 million Beehive to Utah billionaire James LeVoy Sorenson for leaving his entire es tate to charity. The elusive inventor and businessman, who died in January, amassed an estate estimated at $4.5 billion. Over the years, Sorenson gave away millions to a wide array of causes, and his inventions and businesses improved medical care for uncounted numbers of people. "He was greatly blessed in his life and felt a great obligation and opportunity to be able to give back," said his son, James Lee Sorenson. "And in the end, that's what he did." It's a great legacy. yOU KNOW, PREW, A NATURAL letn OSAMA (ICrtNe- dW has mo wweeaxi af-- fETTCS ANP NO VMCHT- - THE CMN REJECTS him rru.9t PKHesNOTKeoaess, t ii i i w iiiM iI i ii t esntwm ill A a I TWBUMAW- i i .in mm ii ii 1r I m I Qarnitm n .mm yo $ayp) m Kfil tf ( rUL'WlJ.Ci JJ A ii i- v mr f 'uy rr vw w l - - j - ZJ u V mil inf I f"l V"l-- l I I B I MO I f-- j. I syB W Oa T-- lfA" ou- m tern lei: - L .n.. NMM 9ynAoM Inc World rtf " I Bruce Tinsley MALLARD FILLMORE "l X, fwewM team- - fi .m OBANWS. POLICIES, RHETORIC Garry Trudeau DOONESBURY ....-...,- I -? m-!- S OBAMA' Vw&fa ... -- foe fifleto. I, |