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Turning Point: The Good News About Iraq

As Gen. David Petraeus and Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno appear before the Senate Armed Services Committee for confirmation hearings today, things are looking up in Iraq.

"This is unprecedented: three major Iraqi-led operations in three different parts of the country."

And...

Last week, the overall level of attacks in Iraq was at the lowest point since April, 2004. So far in May, the U.S. death rate is the lowest of the war.

And...

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's political position has never been stronger, he currently has the backing of Sunnis, Kurds and moderate Shiites. As a result, Moqtada al-Sadr's party is politically isolated.

And...

The speaker of the Iraqi parliament [a Sunni] wrote a heartfelt letter to President Bush, thanking the U.S. for sending the "best politicians and military commanders" to Iraq.

So, where would you find a story like that? If you guessed "Pentagon Press Release" you're wrong. If you guessed ABC News, you're right.

The obligatory disclaimer is included:

There is, of course, no guarantee that these positive developments will last. Government services and economic development still lag. Iranian involvement is still a major concern. And nobody wants to repeat Cheney's infamous 2005 comment about the "last throes" of the insurgency. But we may now be seeing the most positive set of circumstances we have seen in a long, long time in Iraq.

As one usually pessimistic military official told me this morning, "Everything has broken our way over the past three months."

It's nice to see folks in America gathering the courage to almost say something that was obvious to some of us in Iraq last fall. So please Read the whole thing.

Then, this Memorial Day weekend, join with the US Congress in sending a big "Up yours, loser" message to the troops that made it happen.