Even NY Times Can't Hide From Iraq Successes

For liberals, losing in Iraq has been a foregone conclusion from the day we captured Baghdad. It's become part of who they are, an fact felt in every fiber of their very being. The NY Times has been the leader in trumpeting every single bad things that has occurred in that country while burying any good news and served as the leader for the pathetic anti-warrior community.

Supporters of the war have had to take the abuse of supporting our men and women defending our freedom for the last five years and many of us (but not all) have never wavered, we knew that given the time and money, they would succeed in crushing al-Qaeda and the Mahdi Militia, thus securing some semblance of peace in a country that has been rocked by one oppressive regime after another and that has deep sectarian divides. This was the penultimate battle in this phase of the Global War on Terror and we couldn't afford to lose. We didn't.

Today, the NY Times is finally forced to admit what many war supporters have been saying since last summer: we are winning. Yes, it's peppered with some of the typical Times defeatism but our successes have been so great that "Pinch" and his liberal newsroom had no option but to write this piece. Make no mistake, this is the Times saying that we are going to win and is the best we can hope for from the Old Gray Lady. Being the Times, they published on a summer Saturday instead of Sunday where it would have had much more play but publish it they did:

While the increase in American troops and their support behind the scenes in the recent operations has helped tamp down the violence, there are signs that both the Iraqi security forces and the Iraqi government are making strides. There are simply more Iraqi troops for the government to deploy, partly because fewer are needed to fight the Sunni insurgents, who have defected to the Sunni Awakening movement. They are paid to keep the peace.

Mr. Maliki’s moves against Shiite militias have built some trust with wary Sunnis, offering the potential for political reconciliation. High oil prices are filling Iraqi government coffers. But even these successes contain the seeds of vulnerability. The government victories in Basra, Sadr City and Amara were essentially negotiated, so the militias are lying low but undefeated and seething with resentment. Mr. Maliki may be raising expectations among Sunnis that he cannot fulfill, and the Sunni Awakening forces in many cases are loyal to their American paymasters, not the Shiite government. Restive Iraqis want to see the government spend money to improve services. Attacks like the bombing that killed 63 people in Baghdad’s Huriya neighborhood on Tuesday showed that opponents can continue to inflict carnage.

As for all who doubted our military men and women, shame on you. As for all those who hoped for outright defeat and felt a certain glee every time the death toll reached another milestone, you have no shame and should take a good, hard look at yourself, you have serious issues over and above BDS.

We can't claim total victory yet because the Iranians still have some tricks up their sleeves, but we are closer to victory now than we were to defeat a year and a half ago when the situation was at its worst. President Bush deserves praise for installing General Petraeus in the leadership role and keeping his eye on the big picture, defeating al-Qaeda in a place that the terrorists chose. Senator McCain deserves kudos as well for pushing and supporting the surge from the beginning. I think he touts his efforts too infrequently.