It's Morning In Iraq

Really. Here's a sampling from just the past month.

April 17:

There continues to be plenty of good news to be found in Iraq. The Iraqi army continues to take over responsibility for more battle space, al Qaeda continues to take a beating, and rebuilding of the country is progressing. Moreover, the Iraqi economy is improving, and has doubled in the last three years.

May 1:

Iraqis continue to show their mettle in engagements with anti-Iraqi forces, and continue to take over battlespace from Coalition forces. Prime Minister-designate al-Maliki said this week that he hopes to have a unity government in place within a week. This news has led to reports that the U.S. will be able to significantly decrease our troops in Iraq by the end of this year. In addition, the improved security conditions in Iraq have allowed Iraqis to carry on with their lives.

May 9:

al-Qaeda correspondence recently captured and translated by CENTCOM (via Captain's Quarters) suggests that the U.S. military and Iraqi security forces are, slowly but surely, diminishing the influence and effectiveness of the insurgency:

At the same time, the Americans and the Government were able to absorb our painful blows, sustain them, compensate their losses with new replacements, and follow strategic plans which allowed them in the past few years to take control of Baghdad as well as other areas one after the other. That is why every year is worse than the previous year as far as the Mujahidin's control and influence over Baghdad. [emphasis added]

May 15:

[I]n case you missed it, here are some highlights from the latest Brookings’s Iraq Index:

*Per Capita GDP (USD) for 2005 is forecast to increase from the previous year to $1,051. In 2002 it was $802.

*Increases in GDP for the next five years: 16.8%, 13.6%, 12.5%, 7.8%, and 7.2%.

*Actionable tips from Iraqis have increased every month this year. In January, 4,025 tips were received; February, 4,235; and March, 4,578.

*On an index of political freedom for countries in the Middle East, Iraq now ranks fourth, just below Israel, Lebanon, and Morocco.

*Crude oil production reached 2.14 million barrels a day (MBD) in April of this year. It had dropped to 0.3 MBD in May of 2003.

*Revenues from oil export have only slightly increased from prewar levels of $0.2 billion, to $0.62 billion in April.

*Electrical output is almost at the pre-war level of 3,958 megawatts. April's production was 3,600 megawatts. In May of 2003, production was only 500 megawatts. The goal is to reach 6,000 megawatts, and was originally expected to be met in 2004.

*The unemployment rate in June of 2003 was 50-60%, and in April of this year it had dropped to 25-40%.

*The number of U.S. military wounded has declined significantly from a high of 1,397 in November 2004 to 430 in April of this year.

*Iraqi military casualties were 201 in April of 2006, after peaking at 304 in July of 2005.

*As of December 2005, countries other than the U.S., plus the World Bank and IMF, have pledged almost $14 billion in reconstruction aid to Iraq.

*Significant progress has also been made towards the rule of law. In May 2003 there were no trained judges, but as of October 2005 there were 351.

*As of January 2006, 64% of Iraqis polled said that the country was headed in the right direction.

*Also as of January 2006, 77% said that removing Saddam Hussein was the right thing to do.

*In May of 2003, Iraqi security forces were estimated at between 7,000-9,000. They numbered 250,500 in March of this year.

*From May 2003 and April 2006, between 1,000 and 3,000 anti-Iraqi forces have been killed each month.

Today Amir Taheri, an expatriate Iranian journalist, points to five primary indicators of Iraq's transformation for the better.

1) More than 1.2 million Iraqi refugees have returned home.

2) Religious pilgrimages to the religious shrines in Karbala and Najaf, non-existent under Saddam, exceed twelve million last year. As Brother Meringoff cites today, these brands of Iraqi Shiism are a lot quieter and apolitical than the Iranian variety blasting out of Qom.

3) Iraqi currency, the dinar, is rising rapidly in value, including against our dollar. Which, of course, is a monetary disaster for which President Bush should be impeached.

4) The Iraqi economy is blowing away the rest of the Middle East, led by its small/medium-sized business sector. That means a growing Iraqi middle class. The country is even exporting foodstuffs, and is back among OPEC's pillars. Another thing that is bad for us, for which Bush should be sacked, as opposed to taking Iraq's oil for ourselves, for which Bush would have deserved toppling and the imprisonment.

5) "Iraq has talk radio, talk TV, blogs [and] a vast network of independent media, including over a hundred privately-owned newspapers and magazines."

What does all of this make clear? That the relentlessly dishonest depictions of Iraq by the American fifth column are pure seditious fantasism, and will continue until their spinners either fade into irrelevance (as they deserve to) or finally achieve their desired result: an abandoned Iraq under Iranian domination and a defeated America at the hands of the New Caliphate. Of which the libs, as willing and eager dhimmis, will be the first victims.

I wouldn't have thought that the Left would still be in the game after all this time and all the aforementioned progress. That they are is our enemies' last lifeline, and our Achilles heel.

UPDATE 5/20: The democratically-elected government of Iraq has been sworn in. Expect the Democrats to now start denouncing them as "Republican puppets."