The truth will set you free

Free, that is, if you're feeling suffocated and suppressed by those who oppose our freeing of the Iraqi people and our nation building there, or those suffering from Bush Derangement Syndrome.

This is a large and vocal part of the MSM and left-wing blogosphere, such as those who are attempting to strong-arm advertisers to pull their ads from FOX News simply because FOX has, through some of the most well-respected meteorologists in the world, questioned the wisdom of global warming alarmism, similar to the NY Times's and TIME Magazine's 20th century global cooling alarmism.

Or those who are advocating the return of the "Fairness Doctrine" to silence conservative talk radio.

And the list goes on. So if you are feeling suppressed by such attacks on freedom, the truth — thanks to Tony Snow — will set you free.

I recently had the privilege of attending a talk by Snow, and I can only hope such events occur with increasing frequency. The speech was long, so I will only deal with some of the statistics Snow gave us to offer readers some insight into what is actually going on in Iraq. (Disclaimer: if you are the type that cringes at any and every nugget of good news out of Iraq, you should probably stop reading.)

Digesting Snow's report was at times troubling, because it appears that some politicians are living so far from reality that they don't even bother with a timeshare on the beautiful shores of truth — they'll never visit.

Take, for example, Hillary Clinton's response to President George W. Bush's optimistic address about Iraq.

Duane Patterson, writing on Townhall.com, gave us Clinton's pithy quote:

"The surge was designed to give the Iraqi government time to take steps to ensure a political solution to the situation. It has failed to do so."

That's interesting, because none of it's true. It's also frightening, because Clinton is running for president and she clearly has no handle on such a pivotal issue.

Democrats' lapdogs over at the Daily Kos offered a piece that claimed that Bush and co. were actually attempting to fail in Iraq, and so the war has been a rousing success, because it is a failure. Were it to be a success, it would be a failure, because only failure can ensure success; failure to fail, therefore, is the only failure that could be considered failure, because we would have not succeeded... in failing.
Such is the logic over at Kos.

In any event, the figures from Central Command in Baghdad have come in, and Snow let us in on information that would make any sane American proud — essentially, how effective the surge has been.

• High profile attacks have dropped nearly 50 percent since May, to 70 a month
  
• The number of tips from Iraqi citizens has quadrupled from 6,000 a month to 24,000
• The tips have led our forces to valuable targets including weapons caches: so far this year we’ve captured more than 3,700 weapons caches. In all of last year we only captured 2,700
• We’ve also taken down dozens of senior al-Qaeda leaders, along with Sunni insurrectionists and Shi'a militia members
• We’ve increased the pace of battalion-level operations 50 percent from last year
• Sectarian murders have declined dramatically, from 1,713 in December to 626 in June
• Coalition forces are killing or capturing an average of 1,500 al-Qaeda terrorists and other enemies per month since January.

“You call that losing? You call that failure? Is this outcome bad for the [Democratic] party? Facts are curious things, aren’t they?” Snow said.

But wait, there's more! That nation building thing we mentioned? It's happening, and it's downright inspiring.

• Since the war began, the average income of Iraqis has tripled, even accounting for inflation
  
• 15 of the nation’s provinces are largely at peace
• More than 200,000 engineers are employed at more than 240 factories around the country
• The Iraqi government is working to spend $10 billion this year — one-quarter of its budget — on capital investment
• Since the surge began, in Anbar province alone we’ve spent $5.5 million on a program that has provided jobs for 18,000 people
  

Of course, the town of Ramadi is probably the most dramatic example of what our brave men and women are accomplishing in Iraq.

Ramadi has seen such improvement over the last year that officials in Iraq are rendered almost speechless at the transformation. Ramadi's strides have really picked up since the surge began. Don't forget that this town was considered by some to be the most dangerous place in Iraq.

Consider:

• A year ago, Ramadi averaged 40 attacks a day. The average today is less than one
• A year ago, Ramadi had two police stations, with 200 officers. Today, it has 30 police stations with 7,400 officers
• In three days, more than 1,200 army recruits signed up in the town
• Our ambassador, Ryan Crocker, recently went into the Ramadi marketplace without body armor. He was greeted with flowers and candy and cheers of gratitude
• Another general reported the surge led to the killing and capture of dozens of al-Qaeda leaders, the capture of dozens of weapons caches, and the destruction of terror cells throughout the country.

“So I ask you again: Is this what it means to lose? Is this a failure? How can this possibly be bad for any political party?” Snow asked again.

He was referring, among (too many) others, to House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, who told the Washington Post that he'd seen evidence of progress in Iraq, and feared that if it continues, blue dog Democrats may support the surge.
If Republicans stay more or less united on the war — the opposition to which the Democrats believe is key to their retaining a congressional majority and possibly taking back the White House — Clyburn said it would be “a real big problem for us.”

Read those words again. According to top Democrats, it is more important to the party that our forces and the Iraqi people fail; otherwise, people like Clyburn might not be famous anymore.

I'll leave you with an excerpt from a story by Der Spiegel's Ullrich Fichtner, reporting from Iraq for the German magazine.

"Ramadi is an irritating contradiction of almost everything the world thinks it knows about Iraq — it is proof that the US military is more successful than the world wants to believe. Ramadi demonstrates that large parts of Iraq — not just Anbar Province, but also many other rural areas along the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers — are essentially pacified today. This is news the world doesn't hear: Ramadi, long a hotbed of unrest, a city that once formed the southwestern tip of the notorious "Sunni Triangle," is now telling a different story, a story of Americans who came here as liberators, became hated occupiers and are now the protectors of Iraqi reconstruction."

"Protectors of Iraqi reconstruction" — that's the truth, and it will set you free. Just ask the Iraqi people.

UPDATE: On this subject, you absolutely must read the Protein Wisdom's blog from Karl. It may be the single most important blog post this year. Just fantastic stuff.