The latest National Intelligence Estimate shows significant improvement in security in Iraq: Report: Security in Iraq Is Improving Friday April 4 2008 By PAMELA HESS Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - A new classified intelligence assessment on Iraq says there has been significant progress in security since the last assessment was delivered in August, a senior military official said. . . . Since the August report, Sunni tribes have solidified their resistance to al-Qaida-associated insurgents in Anbar and Diyala provinces, which has weakened the movement. The National Intelligence Estimate is part of a series of periodic reports that offer the best consensus judgment of top analysts at all 16 U.S. spy agencies on major foreign policy, security and global economic issues. Congress received the new ...

Dan Henninger of the Wall Street Journal makes the point that the Dems so long for Iraq to turn into Vietnam that they are describing the fighting in Basra as George Bush's Tet Offensive. Welcome to 1968. Is it uncharitable to suggest that when the fighting erupted in Basra last week between Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army and the U.S.-trained Iraqi army, some opponents of the war hoped it would become George Bush's Tet Offensive? That is, a battle whose military details are largely irrelevant, but whose sudden violence "proves" to voters that a U.S. military commitment is unwinnable and should be abandoned? It was hard not to miss the ...

Here's an excellent interview of Ben Stein by R. C. Sproul on Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. After R.C. rattles off philosophical critique after philosophical critique, Ben remarks to R.C., "You're a very smart guy." Two smart guys. Both gifted in their own way.  

You won't find this in the NYTimes, but in Karmah, Iraq our soldiers are adored by school children as if they were rock stars. God bless Michael Totten for getting the truth out. The Liberation of Karmah, Part II KARMAH, IRAQ — The small city of Karmah sits between Fallujah and Baghdad, two Iraqi cities that have suffered more insurgent and terrorist violence than most. Karmah, however, was more hard-hit than either. It’s right on the bleeding edge of Anbar Province where the outskirts of Baghdad taper away. Unlike Fallujah, it has no hard perimeter to defend, nor was it considered a top priority for counterinsurgency operations. Surge forces in Baghdad drove Al Qaeda ...