Why We Are Winning In Iraq

The facts boiled down from Strategy Page:

What most of the troops, and Iraqi civilians, notice is the lower level of violence. Since the surge offensive began four months ago, Iraqi (military and civilian) deaths have declined by more than 50 percent, and American casualties are down by over a third. U.S. troops are still taking the lead in moving into hostile areas, and being exposed to ambush and IEDs. But U.S. tactics and training have made enemy efforts much less lethal. This has helped demoralize an increasing number of terrorists. Many are tired of killing Iraqi civilians, and the increasing difficulty at getting at American troops. Look at this from the Iraqi perspective. In a very good month, Iraqis make a hundred or more attacks a day on American troops, and kill, on average, about four of them. While the terrorists make a big deal out of every American killed, they know that most of their attacks were not only failures, but got a lot of their buddies killed. On average, 10-20 terrorists die for every American killed. This has been going on for years, and an increasing number of Iraqi fighters are demoralized and quitting. Many either become informers, or surrender and speak freely. This is resulting in fresher intelligence, and raids that are catching terrorist cells preparing for operations, and in possession of weapons, bombs and incriminating documents.

Wow... fewer Iraqi civilians dead, fewer Americans death, fewer attacks, a 20-1 Terrorist-American kill ratio... What is Harry Reid missing? Jack Murtha? The Mainstream Media? The American people?

Everything.

The al Qaeda links to Iraq:

“The facts are that Al Qaeda terrorists killed Americans on 9/11, they’re fighting us in Iraq and across the world and they are plotting to kill Americans here at home again.”

And amid these positive signs of progress, Michelle Malkin writes of A new critique of the 2004 Lancet Iraq Death Toll Study, and makes "an interesting side note":

as Kane observes in his paper, the Lancet authors “refuse to provide anyone with the underlying data (or even a precise description of the actual methodology).” The researchers did release some high-level summary data in highly aggregated form (see here), but they released neither the detailed interviewee-level data nor the programming code that would be necessary to replicate their results.

But it should be little surprise that liberal statistical studies cherry-picked data to present an awful scenario. Just as it should come as little surprise that violence in Iraq has been dropping. As The Mudville Gazette notes, look at what our troops do in a single day over there, "while you were sleeping":

While you were sleeping, U.S. and Iraqi soldiers were busy:
Monday, 23 July 2007 Three Iraqis freed, their captors detained
Monday, 23 July 2007 Iraqis take lead in island clearing operation
Monday, 23 July 2007 Allons Soldiers render medical aid to Iraqis after VBIED blast
Monday, 23 July 2007 Truck Bomb destroyed during Marne Avalanche
Monday, 23 July 2007 12 al-Qaeda terrorist facilitators captured
Monday, 23 July 2007 Coalition Forces kill 9 terrorists, detain 8 and destroy weapons caches
Monday, 23 July 2007 Warlords find EFP cache
Monday, 23 July 2007 Combined operation nets cache find in Jamia
Monday, 23 July 2007 Suicide car bombers miss target, kill 3 civilians, wound 13 others
Monday, 23
July 2007 Soldiers search for missing comrades leads to discovery of weapons caches

Monday, 23 July 2007 Task Force Marne Soldier died of wounds
Monday, 23 July 2007 Soldiers attacked during combat logistics patrol
Monday, 23 July 2007 IA Forces, U.S. Special Forces detain al-Qaida Terrorists linked to U.S. casualties
Monday, 23 July 2007 Search nets seven terrorist suspects in Bulayj
Monday, 23 July 2007 IA, U.S. Special Forces detain alleged terrorist finance chief in Ninewa Province
Monday, 23 July 2007 ISF, U.S. Special Forces detain five suspected extremists
Sunday, 22 July 2007 Insurgents target ambulance
Sunday, 22 July 2007 Iraqi Army, Coalition Forces detain suspected Al Qaeda cell leader near Taji
Sunday, 22 July 2007 Coalition Forces Detain Two Suspected Weapons Smugglers
Sunday, 22 July 2007 Coalition Forces kill one terrorist, detain 14 suspects

Perhaps Harry Reid should consider his call for immediate withdrawal from Iraq, given such promising signs and hopeful progress. After all, Reid can't even explain how many Iraqis will undoubtedly be massacred if the US were to exit ungracefully.

Reid may be okay with defeat and potential mass revenge killings, but our soldiers are not, and they are working to ensure this does not happen.