The Petraeus Report

I spared myself the pain of watching the Borking of General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker on TV. The soundbite highlights I heard on the radio for thirty minutes yesterday were bad enough. Senator Durbin, (D-IL) who earlier compared our soldiers to Nazis and Communist thugs from the Khmer Rouge, summed up the Democrat strategy perfectly, "No one wants to call General Petraeus a liar on national television...the outside groups will do this for us." I could have shot the radio the way Representative Wexler browbeat the General, compared him to General Westmoreland and taunted, "how many more, general, how many more???" about the soldiers the terrorists have killed. The Democrats' anti-war strategy is simple and straightforward: when the news is bad, trumpet it at the top of your lungs; when the news is good, dispute the numbers. Rahm Emanuel said of the Petraeus report, "We don't need a report that wins the Nobel Prize for creative statistics or the Pulitzer for fiction."
A few noteworthy numbers lie behind these statistical fights you have heard. With the completion of August, the highly Sunni and geographicall enormous Anbar Province has cemented its place as the greatest improvement in Iraq. Prior to March 2007, Anbar had accumulated the most American casualties in nine months out of the previous 12, and seventeen months out of the last 24. In November 2004, terrorists in Anbar claimed 89 American lives. In August 2007, insurgents killed only 8 servicemen in Anbar. Between August 2005 and February 2007, the fewest men the insurgents killed in a month was 14. In twelve of those 18 months, our hostile losses exceeded 20. In the last six months, Anbar has cost us 14, 19, 14, 4, 13, and 8 men in each month respectively and never led in casualty numbers. Baghdad, by constrast, has assumed Anbar's mantle as the main problem area. My guess is that General Petraeus will next turn his attentions there.
Do you wonder if the Iraqis can handle security? Dhi Qar province claimed 59 lives through hostile fire over the first three years of the occupation, but has not cost us a single casualty in the last year. In the fall of 2006, the Iraqi Army received the main responsibility for security in Dhi Qar and they have succeeded in that job.
Now, with the surge clearly working, we can talk about troop reductions on terms favorable to our armed forces and the General whose plan has made it possible. If my next child is a son, I may have to persuade my wife to give him Petraeus as a middle name.