The War on Terror Is Going Well, Despite al Qaeda Torture Manuals

Promising War on Terror news this week:

Time Magazine:

Is al-Qaeda on the Run in Iraq?

There is good news from Iraq, believe it or not. It comes from the most unlikely place: Anbar province, home of the Sunni insurgency. The level of violence has plummeted in recent weeks.

And Michael Yon confirms the situation in Anbar, via Glenn Reynolds:

Following a major clearing operation that 2-7 IN executed with Iraqi Police when they initially took over, the guns are mostly quiet now. IEDs are still a threat but are few. Over the first one-hundred days, 2-7 has taken one wounded Soldier, and unfortunately a Marine was killed by an IED.

Airforce Pundit also offers ten reasons for Weekly Good News From Iraq.

But this is no reason to get complacent, as Bush Says Al Qaeda Seeks Haven in Iraq.

Although, looking at more good news from the other front on the war on Terror, Afghanistan, the view looks promising...

Daily Telegraph:

Taliban 'stalled by lack of commanders'

The Taliban's much-vaunted spring offensive has stalled apparently due to lack of organisation after dozens of middle-ranking commanders were killed by British troops in the past year, according to military sources.

and

Hot Air:

Taliban trying to find its mojo after Brits liquidate mid-level commanders

But again, the threat remains, as we can see from al Qaeda's recently released torture manual:

Torture, al Qaeda Style

MAY 24--In a recent raid on an al-Qaeda safe house in Iraq, U.S. military officials recovered an assortment of crude drawings depicting torture methods like "blowtorch to the skin" and "eye removal."

And here at home Civil Libertarians are complaining about U.S. Army manuals found at the WHISC (formerly, the School of the Americas).

I mean, really. I'll take waterboarding and ice cold temperatures over "eye removal" any day.

Update: Human Events talks about the lack of MSM horror, reaction, to the al Qaeda torture manual.

Update: DailKos calls Time's Joe Klein a tool for pointing to progress in Iraq.

Update: NewsBusters points out the gulf of mainstream media coverage of the al Qaeda torture manuals.

Update: Daily Mail Blog talks about the Silence on al-Qaida torture

Update: Joe Klein fires back at liberal critics of his Time piece.

Update: Another DailyKos poster calls Klein a moron.

Update: More from Belmont Club on the torture manuals:

Now that the term "torture" has been put in one-to-one correspondence with such admittedly unpleasant activities as punching, sleep deprivation, a handkerchief pulled over one's face and loaded with water, searches by women upon sensitive Islamic men or the disrespectful handling of Korans -- what on earth do we call gouging people's eyes out?

Answer: we call it nothing.