Is Insurgency’s “Back Broken?”

I missed this earlier, but the Washington Times has a very encouraging report that our troops’ rout of Fallujah has broken the back of the insurgency in Iraq. The Times reports:

The top Marine officer in Iraq declared yesterday that victory in the battle of Fallujah has “broken the back” of the Iraqi insurgency, while another commander in the war on terror said Osama bin Laden is all but cut off from his terrorist operatives.

The twin statements declare success on the two main war fronts — Iraq and Afghanistan — where the U.S. military is fighting a deadly insurgency and trying to create lasting democracies.

And, there’s more:

Gen. Sattler said the insurgency, in losing Fallujah, has lost “your location and your means for command and control, you lose your lieutenants, which we have taken out of the Zarqawi network over the course of the last almost three months on a very precise basis. … And you also lose the turf where you’re operating, the town that you feel comfortable moving about in, where you know your way about. Now you’re scattered.”

He added, “I believe, I personally believe, across the country, this is going to make it very hard for them to operate. And I’m hoping that we’ll continue to breathe down their neck.”

If this is anywhere close to an accurate assessment, it’s big. If Fallujah was as instrumental as they apparently believe to organizing the terrorists, this victory could be more significant than we anticipated, because had we known we surely would have completed the job the first time. Let’s pray this is right.