Pirate's Cove

Over at The Corner

SSSSHHHHHHH … Don’t Tell Anyone: Al Qaeda Has Been Routed in Baghdad   [Andy McCarthy]

The Newspaper of Record has the story today … on page A-19.

… And even there, the Times can’t bring itself to say we won.  The report is headlined, “Militant Group Is Out of Baghdad, U.S. Says.”  They left — not we kicked their ass out.

Well, I will agree with the sentiment in the headline, as well as most of the sentiment in McCarthy’s post, but there is some surprisingly candid, and well reported and unbiased, information in the story, which does not back up the “they left – not we kicked their asses out,” at least beyond said headline. The fact that it is on A-19 is probably the largest disgrace

BAGHDAD, Nov. 7 — American forces have routed Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, the Iraqi militant network, from every neighborhood of Baghdad, a top American general said today, allowing American troops involved in the “surge” to depart as planned.

Maj. Gen. Joseph F. Fil Jr., commander of United States forces in Baghdad, also said that American troops had yet to clear some 13 percent of the city, including Sadr City and several other areas controlled by Shiite militias. But, he said, “there’s just no question” that violence had declined since a spike in June.

“Murder victims are down 80 percent from where they were at the peak,” and attacks involving improvised bombs are down 70 percent, he said.

General Fil attributed the decline to improvements in the Iraqi security forces, a cease-fire ordered by the Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr, the disruption of financing for insurgents, and, most significant, Iraqis’ rejection of “the rule of the gun.”

The fact that it was on A-19 simply shows the liberal bias of the Times. It was apparently a story that had to be printed, but damned if they were going to give it the authority and exposure it deserved. I’m surprised it made it in at all.

Over at Q and O

As expected some of the violence has been displaced. And, shia militias remain a problem. But as he points out, if the peace can be maintained, and if the repair of the infrastructure can be begun in earnest, the possiblity of an economic turnaround is possible. And that of course means less unemployment, fewer warm bodies willing to take pay to be insurgents and an even better chance for reconciliation.

And, via Q and O, IraqPundit

Frankly, I don’t understand why so many mock us for wanting a future for Iraq. Is your hatred for George Bush so great that you prefer to see millions of civilians suffer just to prove him wrong?

Yes, the Left’s is.

See more at Memeorandum.

Meanwhile

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Coalition Forces killed three terrorists and detained nine suspects Wednesday during operations to disrupt al-Qaeda and foreign terrorist networks in central and northern Iraq.

I have yet to see anyone in the MSM use a CENTCOM press release.