Right On The Right

The "100 Years" rhetoric has been disproved time and time again, yet the leftists continue using it to try to discredit our nominee. It's not just Obama, it's his cronies too:

Some of the worst news to come out of Iraq is the high number of lost limbs. Experts attribute this number to less deaths, due to advances in medicine, but giving an arm or a leg for your country is still an amazing sacrifice. One man gave that sacrifice, and is now back in Iraq. Stop the ACLU shares with us this amazing video report:

My local newspaper ran an opinion piece about the Iraq War, sort of. The Vindicator released an article giving various opinions from local vets, organizers, and regular folks, about the War in Iraq. The article is a good read, and offered a rare balanced view of the public opinion, with more substantive thoughts than any poll could give us. I applaud them for the great piece. Excerpt:

Nonetheless, Brooks said he saw progress in winning over the Iraqi people while he was there. Comparing when he arrived with when he left, he said the Iraqi people had a lot of freedoms they didn’t have before — not just voting rights, but human rights. These were simple things, he said, like satellite dishes and outside entertainment. And, he said, there was no more torture going on, unless it was by insurgents.

“We were 100 percent right to invade Iraq. The American people knew what we were doing and where we were going, and now don’t like it because of all the politics going on,” he said. “We are going to be there a while longer because those people have built up so much anger against us. But, they are using so much time and energy defending themselves that it keeps them from attacking here. We have not had any more terrorist attacks in U.S. since [Sept. 11],” he noted.

Congressmen and Senators, including John McCain, have made trips to Iraq before, but McCain's trip today is a high profile stop that's going to earn him some much-needed headlines on the campaign trail. Ed Morrissey has the coverage, and shares the news:

Republican presidential candidate John McCain arrived in Iraq on Sunday to assess improved security attributed to a build-up of 30,000 extra troops of which he has been a strong supporter.

McCain arrived in Baghdad and was due to meet Iraqi government leaders and U.S. officials in the heavily fortified “Green Zone” diplomatic and government compound, U.S. embassy spokeswoman Mirembe Nantongo said. …

Attacks across Iraq have fallen by 60 percent since last June, when extra troops were fully deployed. There has been a fall in violence since January but U.S. commanders in Iraq say this does not represent a trend.

Ed also points out that this is McCain's eigth trip to Iraq, and says that this trip will force the media to point out the under-reported good news from the area. I have to agree, and McCain surrogates need to making the point that the surge is working just as much as the Senator does, because it's true and it fits the theme of the McCain campaign. John McCain is out doing foreign policy work while Barack and Hillary bicker...

U.S. casualties are down from a year ago, Iraqi casualties are down from a year ago, and it's all because of the surge. Bottom-up political reconciliation is happening all over Iraq, and the good news is being reported because it's THE news out of Iraq. Here's some of the good stuff:

BAGHDAD - At least 29 U.S. troops died while serving in Iraq in February, the third-lowest monthly casualty toll for the U.S. military since the American-led invasion in 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

Troop fatalities declined from 40 in January, and also dropped steeply from February 2007, when at least 81 troops died in Iraq.

But Iraqi casualties increased compared with January, although violence was reduced substantially from a year ago.

The AP count revealed at least 739 Iraqi security forces and civilians were either killed or found dead last month, up from 610 in January, which had the lowest monthly death toll since the end of 2005.

In February 2007, at least 1,801 Iraqis were killed.

As things continue to get better in Iraq, we'll find ourselves surrounded by new allies who are grateful for the new security situation. That will help build up confidence in the Iraqi government and security forces, and soon enough, they'll be able to secure the country themselves. This is the Petraeus plan, and it is working.