"Insurgency Is Fading Fast, Top Marine in Iraq Says"

Both Gregory Djerejian and Ed Morrisey link to a story in the New York Times that describes a waning Iraqi insurgency:

The top Marine officer in Iraq said Friday that the number of attacks against American troops in Sunni-dominated western Iraq and death tolls had dropped sharply over the last four months, a development that he called evidence that the insurgency was weakening in one of the most violent areas of the country...

...The officer, Lt. Gen. John F. Sattler, head of the First Marine Expeditionary Force, said that insurgents were averaging about 10 attacks a day, and that fewer than two of those attacks killed or wounded American forces or damaged equipment. That compared with 25 attacks a day, five of them with casualties or damage, in the weeks leading up to the pivotal battle of Falluja in November, he said.
"We still have a lot of work to do," acknowledged General Sattler, who will wrap up a seven-month command tour on March 27 and hand off to Maj. Gen. Stephen T. Johnson of the Second Marine Expeditionary Force.

General Sattler, who said on Nov. 18 that the offensive in Falluja had "broken the back of the insurgency" there, said Friday that the remaining insurgents in Anbar Province, a region the size of Rhode Island, numbered in the hundreds and were rapidly losing public support. He said about one-third of Falluja's 250,000 residents, most of whom had fled the violence, had returned.

Last week I discussed, in detail, our endgame in Iraq:

...The endgame in Iraq is becoming clear; perception has shifted as the terrorists are rapidly losing money, manpower and, most importantly, the support of the Iraqi majority. They may grab news headlines with a horrific bombing causing hundreds of civilian deaths, but it just results in the cementing of Iraqi perceptions that the insurgency is nothing but a band of anti-democratic, ruthless murders.

The decrease in the level and lethality of insurgent attacks are not due in part to any ebb and flow; the insurgency is slowly being mopped up as the majority of Iraqis have turned against them. The Coalition is winning hearts and minds as Iraqis, who have been given a choice between joining the Islamic Fascists and cooperating with the Coalition, have chosen the latter. As the Marine commander emphasized (and as I explained here) we have a lot of work to do to finish this thing, but the endgame is now greatly in our favor.