This really just makes my blood boil to even think that some of these liberals who have been hooting and hollering for the past year that the surge isn’t working to finally admit that it has worked and that it was there idea the whole time. I refuse to even publish the outright lies that these liberals are saying on my blog but you can read all about it with commentary here.

I will republish this part of the commentary that highlights Obama’s foresight into the whole Surge situation.

And yet the Democrats whined, “We need more troops” in mantra like fashion, meaning not that the surge would be a success but that the additional “surge” troops in Iraq would be insignificant. Barack Obama’s comment at the time captured the prevailing lefty sentiment rather well: “I am not persuaded that 20,000 additional troops in Iraq is going to solve the sectarian violence there. In fact, I think it will do the reverse.”

 

Wow! What judgment!

You can read more here:

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/blogs/index.php/rubin/12141

Nurses, doctors and host parents surrounded Haider Emad Al-Darausha’s bed just before surgery to hold his hand and show him pictures of how his scars have healed since coming to the United States.

 

The 7-year-old Iraqi boy suffered burns in a mortar attack in Karbala when he was 2. He came to Hilton Head Island in January through the Gift of Life program, which provides surgery for children who can’t get adequate treatment in their home countries.

Haider received surgery to removed some of the scars left on his face from the attack. Fifteen other patients much like Haider have been helped by the same doctor, Dr. Robert Laughlin, through this program.

In this AFP news article, the author blames the economy and the current presidential campaign as being the reason that the number of news stories about the Iraq War have dropped. I personally find this hard to believe. If the war was going poorly, there would be hundreds of news articles written (especially about the death toll reaching 4,000) which the Democrats would latch on to and parade around. This isn’t the case because, on a whole, the war is proceeding much better than it has.

The current economy and presidential election situations haven’t overshadowed the Iraq War in the news; the Iraq War has instead shrunk to an unimportant size. It is along these same lines that the articles states the following that I tend to agree with:

Ron Nessen, a former NBC television correspondent and White House press secretary at the end of the Vietnam War, attributed the falloff in interest to US successes in quelling violence in Iraq, which has brought the death toll of Americans and Iraqis down from the highs of late 2006 — though only to 2005 levels.

 

“Maybe I’m cynical … but good news is no news. I think you are seeing a little bit of that effect in Iraq,” Nessen, now a media expert at the Brookings Institution in Washington, told AFP.

That not need be the case. I am personally interested in hearing positive news from Iraq it’s just they (the news) won’t oblige.

Problems still remain. The Shi’ites and the Kurds have the most optimism, as the BBC points out in its reporting on the survey. By 62% and 73%, respectively, they are happy with their lives. In contrast, only 33% of Sunnis say that. They have still not been engaged enough by the Baghdad government, although improvements have been made. While that remains the case, the potential for violence and dissension will be significant.

 

However, as ABC notes, Baghdad and Anbar have driven most of the improvement in polling since August. That shows some significant movement among the Sunnis, even if the numbers remain troubling low. For instance, 71% of the Anbar respondents rated security as good, an amazing number considering the common wisdom in 2006 of Anbar as “lost”. In Baghdad, where violence remains a problem, the number has risen to 43% — still an improvement, but a reflection of more work needing to be done in the capital.

 

Economics have also improved rapidly. In Baghdad and Anbar especially, Iraqis feel much more confident. A twenty-point jump since last August has a majority rating their household finances positively. Interestingly, the greatest jump came from one of the poorest sectors in Iraq, Sadr City in Baghdad. As personal economics continue to improve, one can expect less support for destabilizing violence. Vast majorities still complain — legitimately — about the delivery of utility services, but with violence declining, the US and Iraq can now focus on these larger-scale projects.

I’d call that some good news.

UPDATE (4:00pm ET):

Michael J. Totten has some graphs that illustrate this poll. Check ‘em out.

Then again, you could just find a local protest to participate in like those guys at Protest Warrior.

Remote-controlled explosives strapped to two mentally retarded women detonated in a coordinated attack on Baghdad pet bazaars Friday, police and Iraqi officials said, killing at least 73 people in the deadliest day since the U.S. sent 30,000 extra troops to the capital this spring.

 

The chief Iraqi military spokesman in Baghdad, Brig. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi, claimed the female bombers had Down syndrome and that the explosives were detonated by remote control, indicating they may not having been willing attackers in what could be a new method by suspected Sunni insurgents to subvert stepped up security measures.

Ed Morrissey sums up what I feel about this situation (emphasis added):

If nothing else has shown the remarkable bloodthirstiness and heartlessness of the AQI terrorists, this should do it. People who would exploit the mentally handicapped as walking bombs have no sense of humanity, justice, or peace. They are, simply put, evil people who have no capacity for negotiation or co-existence.

 

In a way, this shows how desperate AQ has become. They obviously cannot fill their ranks with willing participants, and even hostages won’t suffice. Instead, they exploit the weakest and most innocent and use them as commodities to kill as many people as possible.

 

The Iraqis have seen this evil up close and have rejected it. They understand now that there is no accommodation with evil. It has to be defeated, and defeated utterly.