The NYT's Michael Gordon writes of "Hints of Progress" in The Surge: Hints of Progress, and Questions, in Iraq Data by Michael Gordon WASHINGTON, Sept. 7 — For months, proponents and critics of the Bush administration’s strategy in Iraq have pointed to conflicting indicators about whether it has produced progress. The figures that have emerged in recent government reports have seemingly provided something for everyone. The most comprehensive and up-to-date military statistics show that American forces have made some headway toward a crucial goal of protecting the Iraqi population. Data on car bombs, suicide attacks, civilian casualties and other measures of the bloodshed in Iraq indicate that ...

Here's a fact I'll bet you didn't know: there used to be Iraqi Boy Scouts.The Boy Scouts of Iraq were established in 1954, but under Saddam severe restrictions were placed on the scouting program and, imagine it, Saddam started his own brand of scouting. Undoubtedly, one that taught boys how to be tyrannical despots. Though the Iraqi Boy Scouts faded away after Sadaam's rise to power, they have made a return thanks to the Greatest Military in the world. In fact, here is video of Iraqi boy scouts cleaning up their new camp. I learned this completely underreported fact from talking with a new friend of the Red State Rascals, Shane Clapper. Shane ...

The media has largely ignored the recent good news from Iraq. It has really ignored the incredible work our support troops are doing. Ralph Peters calls them "unsung heroes." SUPPORT TROOPS: UNSUNG HEROES By RALPH PETERS August 30, 2007 -- BAGHDAD THE Army's Maj. Gen. James E. Simmons is a country boy from Arkansas who likes to go fishing in one of Saddam's artificial lakes with NCOs from the Kentucky National Guard. He's also the deputy commanding general for support of Multinational Corps, Iraq. In English, that means he's the Bagh-daddy with deep pockets who keeps our troops armed, equipped, fueled, fed, repaired, protected and able to fly. He also oversees intelligence and counter-IED operations - the struggle with roadside bombs.

In looking at the Iraq headlines today this was prominently featured: "Marine found guilty in death of Iraqi civilian." Depressing. But how do our troops compare to civilian populations in Money magazine's "Ten Best Places to Live?" From military historian and analyst Ralph Peters today: The here-at-home numbers are readily available from public sources. So let's compare some domestic crime rates with the misdeeds of those vicious storm-troopers of ours. In the 19-month period - over a year and a half - from Jan. 1, 2006 until the morning you read this, misbehavior by our troops resulted in a total of 59 scheduled court-martials in Iraq - 21 of them general court-martials, which are reserved for the most-serious crimes (murder, rape, robbery, assault, arson and so forth). The other 38 were special court-martials, invoked for lesser offenses, such as disciplinary infractions or petty theft. OK: 59 trials in 19 months, among an average troop population of almost 140,000. Compare that to civilian crime statistics back home, and it's clear that any of us would welcome the chance to live among such model citizens - even though our troops are overwhelmingly within the age window where criminal behavior is most frequent. Start with a city that Money magazine rated as "one of the 10 best places to live" in the United States: Ann Arbor, Mich. Home to a great university, the town has a population of about 113,300 - about 20,000 lower than our pre-surge troop numbers in Iraq. In 2005 (the last year for which statistics are available), that ideal place to live recorded 1,476 crimes that, if committed by a soldier, would have required a general court-martial - plus a further 2,282 thefts and similar infractions that, depending on the details, would have been handled by either a general or a special court-martial. Twelve months in Ann Arbor, 3,758 court-martial-equivalent trials. If all the crimes had been taken to court, which one doubts. Nineteen months in Iraq, under the complex stresses of combat? Fifty-nine court-martials. Guess that bastion of ethical liberalism in Michigan needs to go through basic training.

Matt Sanchez, a U.S. serviceman in Iraq, penned a great piece over at National Review Online on another war occurring in Iraq:  the media's war. A couple of poignant and revealing excerpts: The media has a conflict of values. A successful insurgent will always get more recognition than a successful infantryman — no matter how many successful infantrymen there are. In an arm-wrestling match between progress and propaganda, the reward of media coverage for bad behavior has a Pavlovian effect on attention-seeking terrorists. * * * As I read much of the Western press I wonder, who side are these guys on? Of course, the answer is that they’re supposed to remain neutral, but this neutrality is a luxury afforded the media by ...

Michael Yon has a devastating indictment of the mainstream media's ignoring of the massacre near Baqubah which he posted as "Bless the Beasts and the Children and reported here on RSR. He provides more details in this update.  If the family depicted in this picture had been killed by coalition forces would the MSM ignore the story? Michael reports that the mainstream media has reporters within 3.5 miles of the massacre site yet no one has picked up the story. Why not? Update on “Bless the Beasts and Children” Baqubah, Iraq Since the publication of “Bless the Beasts and Children” many questions have arisen: some of which I can and will answer here, and some whose ...

In 2006, education opportunities improved for Iraqis with 838 of 849 schools completed. Each completed school serves approximately 400 students for a total of 335,200 students nationwide. From "Freedom Facts" at MNF-Iraq. Photo Credit:  Major Mary Prophit via Michael Yon Online

The BBC is not Fox News--which makes this story all the more compelling. You really have to watch this report about another child (and mother) saving incident conducted by our soldiers--this time in Afghanistan. What other army in the history of war--or in the history of history--has done this? "Rhakma-tula," the name given this baby by his mother means "blessed by God." Amen. And God bless the American military. (--H/T The Tank)

Anne Gearan clamors for the moral high ground as she questions Bush's commitment to democracy in the Middle East. Calling it a "rhetorical cornerstone," she accuses Bush of using the goal of establishing an Arab democracy as window dressing for his war in Iraq. What has Bush done to earn Gearan's scathing assessment? Apparently, he had the audacity to throw his support behind Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who "evicted Hamas radicals from his government over the weekend and is now the sole elected figure running the Western-backed Palestinian government in the West Bank." Abbas' actions were prompted by a bloody coup in which Hamas took control of Gaza. Gearan adds that Abbas was trying "to consolidate power and avert all-out civil war with his Islamist Hamas rivals." The evicted Hamas leaders were elected in January of 2006, when Hamas took 76 out of 132 seats in the Palestinian parliament.:"(Wikipedia)": Gearan tries to paint Bush as a hypocrite who supports democracy at all costs in Iraq, but quickly defends the supposedly un-democratic actions of Abbas. Shame on President Bush for not realizing that civil war in Iraq is bad (so bad that we should get our troops out of there before one breaks out), but civil war in Palestine is good, especially when it is perpetrated by a militant Islamic terror organization such as Hamas. Elected or not, Hamas does not deserve the sympathy of those who would have us believe that the U.S. and Israel are to blame for all the trouble in the Middle East. Credited with hundreds of suicide bombings, rocket attacks against civilian targets, and frequent calls for Muslim attacks against Americans, Hamas has no right to claim legitimacy as a political party.

Liberals are always fighting against tax cuts. In fact, all of the Dem candidates for president want to raise taxes on "the rich." Of course they have no understanding of how taxes really affect an economy and they don't really want to know the truth because the lie helps them so much politically. There are way more people in the lower tax brackets and by pitting them against the "evil rich" each time the conservatives propose a tax cut, they can earn the votes of the ignorant masses and preserve their precious power regardless of what's best for the country. Well, the next time a liberal reiterates the lie that tax cuts ...