That's the question currently being asked by senior American commanders in Iraq. And the answer, according to StrategyPage.com is "not yet:"Al Qaeda in Iraq has lost thousands of members over the past year. The group is fragmented and has lost the support of the local populace and Al Qaeda senior leadership. AQI is unable to gather large forces any more, mainly because Iraqi and American military forces and Concerned Local Citizens confront and defeat it. Already, the group relies on regional commands and soon those commands will fragment. This has already occurred in Anbar Province. Areas of AQI activity remain isolated in the country. Being isolated, AQI becomes easier to target. Militarily, AQI is staring directly at defeat. The 2006 US Army Counterinsurgency Manual states, “Victory is achieved when the populace consents to the government’s legitimacy and stops actively and passively supporting the insurgency.” In the past month, the Concern Local...(Read Full Post)