NEWS COVERAGE and debate about Iraq during...Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), challenging the testimony of Gen. David H. Petraeus, asserted that "civilian deaths have risen" during this year's surge of American forces.
A month later, there isn't much room for such debate, at least about the latest figures. In September, Iraqi civilian deaths were down 52 percent from August and 77 percent from September 2006... U.S. soldiers killed in action numbered 43 -- down 43 percent from August and 64 percent from May...This doesn't necessarily mean the war is being won. U.S. military commanders have said that no reduction in violence will be sustainable unless Iraqis reach political solutions -- and there has been little progress on that front. Nevertheless, it's looking more and more as though those in and outside of Congress who last month were assailing Gen. Petraeus's credibility and insisting that there was no letup in Iraq's bloodshed were -- to put it simply -- wrong.
[the new Dem talking points will be..
-it wasn't worth it
- Bush promised it would be easy
- the Iraqi govt is still corrupt
- we may win in Iraq but make the region worse] |