WE ARE WINNING THE WAR IN IRAQ

It was a real delight to find an article about our progress in Iraq that agrees with the information I get from my son, who is in Iraq for his second tour of duty, and from friends who are also currently serving there. The article is by Randy Hall, a CNSNews.com Staff Writer/Editor who covered a news conference at the National Press Club in Washington hosted by the conservative group America’s Majority, and is titled “Job Is Getting Done in Iraq, Despite US Press, Veterans Say”. I really would like everyone to read this article, so I will only mention a few excerpts from it.

Marine Corporal Richard Gibson identifies what he calls two “tipping points” that took place in 2005. The first was that the number of Iraqi security forces surpassed those of coalition troops, which means the Iraqis are taking over more of the operations against the insurgents. The second was the December 15th election, in which the Iraqis selected their first national legislature. This election has broken the previous tie between the two primary insurgent groups, the Baathists and Al Qaeda. As the new government’s security forces increase in number and take over more of the fighting, the Baathist remnants of Saddam Hussein’s regime are withdrawing; the Iraqi security forces are very popular with the people, and unwillingness to attack their own is taking the Baathists out of the fight.

The article also points out that the civilian death rate in Iraq since January 2003 has dropped from 70-125 per day under Saddam Hussein, to 25-28 per day. U.S. military casualties dropped 27 % between 2004 and 2005, and this year casualties are running 62% lower than in 2005. This is a tremendous improvement that the mainstream (read liberal) press does not make known to the public, because it does not support their primary political position--bashing the Republican administration.

J. D. Johannes, military veteran and reporter, says for the terrorists to be able to win here they would need help from their great ally, the U.S news media. He points out a battle in Iraq that lasted 30 minutes, which the news media reported as a “major conflict”, saying the coalition suffered “high casualties”-- another example of how the press in the United States likes to distort the truth and mislead the public, as a direct quote from the article shows: “The general who was involved in the fighting later said that he and his forces had been victorious on the ground, but the terrorists ‘had won it on CNN’.”