The Ultimate Proof Iraq is Improving

Many people believe that when Walter Cronkite (inaccurately) said we were losing in Vietnam after the Tet Offensive, the country started believing that and it quickly spiraled downward. That may or may not be true but as I said, some people truly believe that.

We may now be seeing something akin to that but in the opposite direction. The UK Guardian--a paper that is several degrees more to the left than The Nation magazine and is a beacon for the left--actually came out with a piece today saying that things are improving in Iraq. A stunning admission from the most liberal daily on the planet:

Statistics famously lie, but current figures, spurious or not, are finally favouring Washington and its Iraqi clients. Since the US military surge began, civilian deaths have fallen by roughly two-thirds across Iraq. The latest Pentagon assessment recorded 600 killings in November, compared with more than 2,500 in January. At least 3,600 members of al-Qaida in Mesopotamia were killed or captured in the same period.

A key factor is said to be the so-called Sunni Awakening. The Pentagon says the decline in sectarian conflict has been matched by the recruitment of 69,000 mostly Sunni volunteers hostile to foreign jihadis and determined to reclaim their communities.

The ceasefire by the Iranian-backed, Shia Arab Mahdi army, wisely adopted as the surge troops advanced, has helped cut the killing, too.

Read it all. Now think about it, if the Guardian believes that we are making progress, why can't American pundits like Keith Olbermann and Jack Cafferty believe that as well? Because they have too much invested in losing, my friends.