Burying The Good News On Iraq

Why does Harry Reid think we're losing the war in Iraq? Well, we all know it's because he's a slave to polls, but one also could present a compelling argument that it's simply because he reads the MSM.

Take for example this story from AP that contains some very encouraging news about a major win by our side that further implicates Iran in the attacks. Let's get to that, shall we?

First, there's the headline: Explosion near shrine in Iraq kills 55. So the story's about the endless violence Reid pegs as evidence of the war being lost -- can there really be any good news? Maybe the lead is better.

BAGHDAD - A parked car exploded Saturday near one of Shiite Islam's holiest shrines in the city of Karbala as people were headed to the area for evening prayers, killing 55 people and wounding dozens, officials said.

Nope. Paragraph 2? Nope. More on the bomb.

Paragraph 3? No, it's about another bomb that exploded in the same area a while back.

Paragraph 4? Nope, more on the bomb.

Paragraphs 5 or 6? Big nope. In fact, they feed Reid's belief that all of Iraq is consumed by ugly, anti-government sectarian strife:

An angry crowd gathered after the explosion, many of them searching frantically for missing relatives. Some threw stones at the police and at the office of the provincial governor, accusing them of failing to protect the people.

Police fired weapons in the air to disperse the crowds.

Paragraphs 7 come 11? Nope; eyewitness statements and TV images -- indications that the reporters were busy scribing away in front of TV sets in the Green Zone.

Paragraph 12? Nope. Another bomb outside a police chief's house that killed some security personnel.

Lucky paragraph 13? Yes! Finally, AP gets around to telling us something good and significant as opposed to the bad news of minor real significance, unless you live in Baghdad:

Elsewhere, U.S. forces detained 17 suspected insurgents in raids targeting al-Qaida in Iraq on Saturday, the military said, a day after the Pentagon announced the capture of one of the terror network's most senior and experienced operatives.

"We're achieving a deliberate, systematic disruption in the al-Qaida in Iraq network," Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, a U.S. military spokesman, said in a statement.

U.S. and Iraqi officials in Baghdad declined to comment about Abdul Hadi al-Iraqi, 46, who was captured last fall on his way to Iraq, where he may have been sent by top terror leaders in Pakistan to take a senior position in al-Qaida in Iraq, officials said Friday in Washington.

The insurgent group has claimed responsibility for some of the deadliest attacks in Iraq, including the bombing last year of a revered Shiite mosque in Samarra, which touched off a cycle of sectarian killings.

After being secretly held by the CIA for months, al-Iraqi — who was born in the northern city of Mosul and once served in Iraq's military — has been shipped to the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, military prison for terror suspects, the Pentagon said.

Marines working off of information from a captured insurgent found a truck loaded with explosives early Friday near Fallujah, the military said. After the area was evacuated, American fighter jets destroyed the truck, the military said.

In Mahmoudiya, about 20 miles south of Baghdad, U.S. and Iraqi forces detained eight suspected insurgents and confiscated three caches of weapons during a raid on an apartment complex on April 22, including mortars, rockets and ammunition. The weapons appeared to be new and "were stamped with recent dates and Iranian markings," the military said.

The United States has frequently accused Iran of allowing insurgents to enter this country carrying weapons such as deadline roadside bombs used to attack U.S. and Iraqi convoys.

Wow. We caught 25 suspected insurgents in two raids before they could kill who knows how many troops, police and innocents. We did it because of improved intelligence (which, by the way, we won't be able to do if redeployed "over the horizon"), we blew up a truck bomb before it could do any damage, and we siezed dangerous weapons that implicate Iran further in the war -- showing the Dems don't just want to surrender to the Iraq insurgents; they want to surrender to Iran as well.

Oh wait, there's more:

Separately, Denmark also announced it is sending special forces to southern Iraq in an effort to stop stepped-up attacks against Danish and British soldiers in the Shiite-dominated area near the southern city of Basra.

Danish officials said the troops were on a temporary mission that would not affect the country's plans to withdraw its contingent by August and replace it with a smaller helicopter unit.

"I can confirm that the Iraqis, Danes and British are putting a great effort into finding the elements that are shooting at Danish and British soldiers day and night," Defense Minister Soeren Gade told Danish broadcaster TV2.

You mean there's actually a coalition of some sort fighting this war? Really?!

The MSM will tell you this is an objective story, with 12 paragraphs (actually 13; it ends on a sour note) about insurgent victories and 11 paragraphs on insurgent defeats.

Now I know Harry Reid is pandering and cowardly enough to buy that excuse ... but is anyone else? Not Capt. Ed, who sums it all up nicely:

This [violence] is what happens when abandoning an area with a weak security apparatus in place. Now that the Brits and Danes have given the people of Basra a drop-dead date for their withdrawal, they have set in motion a fight for power that will only amplify as the withdrawal date approaches. Instead of throwing in with the central government, the flight of the Coalition has convinced Iraqis in that area that they have to find the strongest warlord for protection.

We can expect this across the country if the US withdraws precipitately from Iraq. A pullout will embolden the violent and frighten the law-abiding, and the end result will be a completely failed state. Regardless of whether one supported the invasion or not, it is obviously not in the American interest to leave behind a collapsed Iraq where the boldest and most vicious terrorists rise to power in fiefdoms small and large.