J.R. Dunn, writing in American Thinker, says that even if the legacy media is ignoring it, there is no denying that the surge is working. Read at least the first half of the article (students of military history will want to read the whole thing), but here’s a taste:

It appears that Gen. David Petreaus has discovered the correct strategy for Iraq: engaging the Jihadis all over the map as close to simultaneously as possible. Keeping them on the run constantly, giving them no place to stand, rest or refit. Increasing operational tempo to an extent that they cannot match (“Getting inside their decision cycle”, as the 4^th generation warfare school would call it), leaving them harried, uncertain, and apt to make mistakes.

The surge is more of a refinement than a novelty. Earlier Coalition efforts were not in error as much as they were incomplete. American troops would clean out an area, turn it over to an Iraqi unit, and depart. The Jihadis would then push out the unseasoned Iraqis and return to business. This occurred in Fallujah, Tall Afar, and endless times in Ramadi.

Now U.S. troops are remaining on site, which reassures the locals and encourages cooperation.

Now if you want some news from the actual front (not a hotel room in Baghdad), read In the Wake of the Surge from Michael J. Totten. Read it all, but again, here’s a taste:

“This is not what I expected in Baghdad,” I said.

“Most of what we’re doing doesn’t get reported in the media,” he said. “We’re not fighting a war here anymore, not in this area. We’ve moved way beyond that stage. We built a soccer field for the kids, bought all kinds of equipment, bought them school books and even chalk. Soon we’re installing 1,500 solar street lamps so they have light at night and can take some of the load off the power grid. The media only covers the gruesome stuff. We go to the sheiks and say hey man, what kind of projects do you want in this area? They give us a list and we submit the paperwork. When the projects get approved, we give them the money and help them buy stuff.”

Not everything they do is humanitarian work, unless you consider counter-terrorism humanitarian work. In my view, you should. Few Westerners think of personal security as a human right, but if you show up in Baghdad I’ll bet you will. Personal security may, in fact, be the most important human right. Without it the others mean little. People aren’t free if they have to hide in their homes from death squads and car bombs.

That last paragraph speaks to me, what with me being a Second Amendment freak and all.

. . . have never been spoken. Kathryn Jean Lopez says severed heads beat report cards to the truth:

Nailing down a clear picture of the war in Iraq is a work in progress in Washington, D.C. Making it harder is the national media, which is misrepresenting what is happening at boot level, softening the face of the enemy.

If the public cannot get a true view of the brutality and horror the enemy is capable of, then how can it be expected to reasonably assess our involvement?

The Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom has released the early results of their upcoming Religious Freedom in the World 2007. Some highlights:

• The greatest persecutors of religion are Islamist and communist regimes.
• Regimes that respect religious freedom also have more civil liberties, more prosperity, better health for their people, and less militarized societies.
• All of the most religiously free countries are democracies.
• Religiously free societies encourage private initiative and entrepreneurship.
• Almost all of the most religiously free countries are culturally Christian in background.

Marshall also pointed out that some tyrannies, and their apologists in the West, prioritize “economic rights” and supposed “Asian” and “Islamic” values over religious freedom for individuals.   But non-Western and historically poor countries such as Mongolia, Thailand, Mali and Senegal have achieved relative religious freedom, without sacrificing their culture or their religion.  ”It is a moral travesty of the highest order to maintain that because people are hungry or cold it is legitimate to repress their beliefs as well,” Marshall riposted.

So who did the best? The top “free countries” were:

And the most repressive places on Earth:

The real debate over Iraq is between those who think the fight is lost — or not worth the cost — and those who believe the fight can be won and as difficult as the fight is, the cost of defeat would be far higher.
     — President Bush, 12 July 2007

As to what to do about it, I think I’ll wait for General Petraeus’ presentation to Congress this September. Dems, on the other hand, are locked in to their “rush to surrender”.

Four days ago, Michael Yon covered an al Qaeda massacre in a small village in Iraq:

Soldiers from 5th IA [Iraqi Army] said al Qaeda had cut the heads off the children. Had al Qaeda murdered the children in front of their parents? Maybe it had been the other way around: maybe they had murdered the parents in front of the children. Maybe they had forced the father to dig the graves of his children.

Yon’s latest dispatch addresses the fact that the MSM has studiously avoided reporting the tragedy:

But for those publications who actually had people embedded in Baqubah when the story first broke and still failed to cover it, their malaise is inexplicable. I do not know why all failed to report the murders and booby-trapped village: apparently no reporters bothered to go out there, even though it’s only about 3.5 miles from this base. Any one of the reporters currently in Baqubah could still go to these coordinates and follow his or her nose and find the gravesites. . . .

If much of mainstream media does not recognize barbarity, clearly their readers can and do. Readers throughout the world might consider contacting their local papers and favorite websites with the link to this update. The story is very important in that it is well-documented with photos and video, and the Iraqi and American soldiers who were present are named and easily reachable. Those mainstream reporters currently in Baqubah could readily take up the baton.  

The UK Daily Mail prints an article written by a Muslim that was at one time an actual member of the network that planned and attempted to execute the recent bombings in London and Glasgow:

When I was still a member of what is probably best termed the British Jihadi Network – a series of British Muslim terrorist groups linked by a single ideology – I remember how we used to laugh in celebration whenever people on TV proclaimed that the sole cause for Islamic acts of terror like 9/11, the Madrid bombings and 7/7 was Western foreign policy.

By blaming the Government for our actions, those who pushed this “Blair’s bombs” line did our propaganda work for us. More important, they also helped to draw away any critical examination from the real engine of our violence: Islamic theology.

As we celebrate our freedom in this country, it is important to remember that there is evil in this world whose objective is to destroy us, that we have young men and women fighting that evil as they help rebuild a nation that is experiencing that evil every day.

Support Michael Yon as he brings us the truth.

Support those who sacrifice by giving to these charities rated A+ by the American Institute of Philanthropy:

• Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund (100% of contributions raised by the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund go towards support of our troops and their families; all administrative expenses are underwritten by the Fund’s Trustees.)
• Fisher House (Only 3% of funds go towards administration and fundraising)

Memorial Day grew out of the horror of the great Civil War which ripped this nation asunder. It is a day that has been set aside that we may remember our fallen heroes, those that have died while defending our noble experiment, the greatest nation in the history of Man.

This is the sixth Memorial Day in a row in which we find our nation confronting a great evil. While liberals moan about keeping Islamofascists locked up on a Caribbean island, our soldiers are kicking down doors in Iraq to find torture chambers.

A recent raid on an al-Qaeda safe house turned up crude instruments of torture and an instruction manual that graphically depicts how they are to be applied, such as using a power drill to drill through a hand or applying a hot iron or even a blowtorch to the skin. The instructions do not tell captors to provide religious materials, legal counsel or cultural-specific meals. They do show how to break limbs and gouge an eye from its socket.

A month ago five people were rescued from just such a torture house, one of them a mere boy and all of them beaten daily with chains and cables. This is the evil that the enemy brought to our shores.

Makes “waterboarding” look like a walk in the park, doesn’t it? Makes getting your picture taken with a collar on and girl holding the end of a leash a little tame, doesn’t it.

The media is virtually ignoring the story of the al-Qaeda torture manual and victims rescued. It does not fit their agenda the way that months of Abu Ghraib coverage furthered their cause.

Similarly, the media is under-reporting the freeing of 42 Iraqis, one as young as 14, from an al-Qaeda prison. Some had been held as long as four months, suspended from ceilings, beaten and tortured. Some had broken bones.

Our troops are doing good things in Iraq.

On this Memorial Day we should remember all our soldiers, active and retired, alive and deceased. We should be grateful to those who have given their all and support those currently facing the horrors of war.

I encourage you to fly an American flag in memory of soldiers no longer with us, and open your hearts and wallets to support today’s soldiers and their families. Some suggestions:

Disabled American Vets
Operation Gratitude (Read a news story about Operation Gratitude)
Adopt a Platoon
Treats for Troops
Operation Top Knot
Fisher House
Operation Hero Miles
Children of Fallen Soldiers Relief Fund
USO

Alternatively (or in addition to), you can support former Green Beret and current photojournalist Michael Yon as he publishes the most unbiased truth about the situation in Iraq.

After months of chest beating and talking tough, Democrats are withdrawing the entire timetable requirement from the Iraq funding legislation:

War opponents had hoped that Democratic control of Congress would force a swift end to the Iraq conflict. But the package requires Bush to surrender virtually none of his war authority. Instead of withdrawal dates, Democrats accepted a GOP plan to establish 18 benchmarks for the Iraqi government and to require Bush to report on progress starting in late July. If the Iraqis fall short, they could forfeit U.S. reconstruction aid.

In the finest of French traditions, Democrat Harry Reid tries to claim victory:

“For heaven’s sake, look where we’ve come,” Reid said. “It’s a lot more than the president ever expected he’d have to agree to.”

Yeah, way to throw your weight around now that your party controls both houses of congress. Such behavior makes Bill Frist look like John Wayne!

Bob Kerry, the former Democrat Senator from Nebraska writes an op/ed about The Left’s Iraq Muddle, stating “yes, it is central to the fight against Islamic radicalism“:

The U.S. led an invasion to overthrow Saddam Hussein because Iraq was rightly seen as a threat following Sept. 11, 2001. For two decades we had suffered attacks by radical Islamic groups but were lulled into a false sense of complacency because all previous attacks were “over there.” It was our nation and our people who had been identified by Osama bin Laden as the “head of the snake.” But suddenly Middle Eastern radicals had demonstrated extraordinary capacity to reach our shores.

Read More

Hat Tip to non-blogging Advised by Wolves.

President Bush has vetoed the shameless Democrat surrender monkey legislation that would let the terrorists know when they can safely take over Iraq.

Or, at least, Mary Katharine Ham puts her answer to Reid’s “the war is lost” defeatism to poetry ala “Green Eggs and Ham”.

You will remember that when CNN’s Dana Bash asked Harry Reid if he would believe General Petraeus if he testified that progress is being made in Iraq, the Majority Leader answered:

No, I don’t believe him, because it’s not happening.

In the face of blind arrogance, it seems to me that Seussian prose is exactly the way to frame this debate. Good job Mary Katharine!