Hats off to Glenn for helping bring critical mass to the obvious truth that the reports coming out of Iraq are too one-sided, too patently political, and far too gloomy. Others are catching on. It’s impossible to know for sure from this distance, but the emails I’ve printed from soldiers, as well as despatches from some pro-war journalists, like Hitch in the current Vanity Fair, have kept me from panic. That’s not to say we shouldn’t hear the bad news. It’s just that it needs perspective. Tom Friedman has been splendid, I think, in getting exactly the right mix of optimism and concern. I noticed this aside in Danielle Pletka’s op-ed in the NYT today:
[T]he number of engagements in Iraq have declined from roughly 25 a day in July to about 15 a day today – and each lasts for an average of two or three minutes.
Finally some perspective on those almost daily troop deaths which every media outlet plasters on the front-page. Things are slowly improving! All the more reason to keep a steady course, perhaps move more quickly to devolve power in some areas, and remind Iraqis of the critical fact that we are not going to abandon them again. Not this time. And the French? Ignore them.
The Dish 