Media Military Matters

THE story of 2007.

There should be no question what the top story of the year was: America’s counterinsurgency campaign in Iraq, a political party's hapless efforts to sabotage it, and the Western mainstream media’s stubborn refusal to own up to military progress.

We rang in 2007 with vehement liberal opposition to the “surge” of 21,000 added U.S. troops and tactical changes to secure Baghdad. In the ensuing 12 months, Democrats tried and failed repeatedly to undermine this military strategy and starve the war of funding. Their poisonously partisan allies at MoveOn.org attempted to smear surge architect and patriot Gen. David Petraeus as a traitor. The New York Times and Associated Press fought tooth and nail to obscure the successes of the surge with their relentless “grim milestone” drumbeat. But by year’s end, with Shiites and Sunnis marching and praying together for peace, even anti-war Democrats and adversarial media outlets alike were forced to acknowledge that undeniable military progress and security improvements had been made.

Is there still a long way to go? Hell, yes. Were there other ancillary factors that contributed to the decrease in violence and the “awakenings” in Anbar province and Baghdad? Yes again. But go back to January. Refresh your memories of the anti-surge rhetoric and the spectacularly misguided conventional wisdom...

[i.e., remember this, for utter failure has never dented their ideology one iota: they will try again...]

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YzQ1MDM4MDU1OWZlNGViNmFjNzRjZTkzNzQzYWQ2MzY=