New York Times Admits Surge is Working
Baghdad Showing Signs of Security

Yesterday marked an historical event in the United States. The "paper of record" has finally published a story that I'm sure the editors were struggling with right up to press time:

"The security improvements in most neighborhoods are real. Days now pass without a car bomb, after a high of 44 in the city in February. The number of bodies appearing on Baghdad’s streets has plummeted to about 5 a day, from as many as 35 eight months ago, and suicide bombings across Iraq fell to 16 in October, half the number of last summer and down sharply from a recent peak of 59 in March, the American military says."

"As a result, for the first time in nearly two years, people are moving with freedom around much of this city. In more than 50 interviews across Baghdad, it became clear that while there were still no-go zones, more Iraqis now drive between Sunni and Shiite areas for work, shopping or school, a few even after dark. In the most stable neighborhoods of Baghdad, some secular women are also dressing as they wish. Wedding bands are playing in public again, and at a handful of once shuttered liquor stores customers now line up outside in a collective rebuke to religious vigilantes from the Shiite Mahdi Army."

"Iraqis are clearly surprised and relieved to see commerce and movement finally increase, five months after an extra 30,000 American troops arrived in the country. But the depth and sustainability of the changes remain open to question"...... LINK

Generals on the ground say that if the situation continues at this pace, troop levels will be lowered and some will begin to get their orders to head home. Even with all the sudden changes of events through out Iraq, the Democratic Party is still pushing for legislation that demands the President abandon the new policies that have brought the Iraqi nation to the brink of real stability.

Rob at Say Anything thinks it's high time the Democrats swallow the pill of reality:

"I think it’s high time we all agreed that, for now at least, the military problem in Iraq has been solved. Democrats need to quit their bellyaching in Congress, quit their attempts to undermine the war and the President’s management of it, and swallow that jagged little pill of reality. Which will be hard, as they’ve invested a lot of political capital in the idea of Iraq as a failure, but it’s what is best for the country."

"And once they do that, we can begin to talk about how to generate the political progress Iraq needs before it can become an independent, peaceful and functioning democracy in its own right. Which is something the Democrats claim to want to talk about, but always couple with a bunch of nonsense about a precipitous withdrawal of troops."

"As though abandoning Iraq to chaos were the best way to foment political stability. But then, the Democrats aren’t exactly in this for what’s best for Iraq. Or even what’s best for this country as a whole. For them, it’s all politics."

Rovinsworld thinks "progress" in Iraq is the one thing the Democratic Party has not been banking on. In fact, they have put no investment into the sovereignty of a nation that has paid the price for their right to freedom from tyranny. And so has our men and women in uniform.

Please take the time to read the Anchoress's post on our "embargoed media"