Right On The Right

I just wanted to file another report in the "under-reported good news" category by elaborating on some of the good news I reported on in an recent editorial. Let's go back and run through some of my claims:

Iraqi casualties are down, Al-Qaeda in Iraq is on the run, and the changing political landscape in al-Anbar Province is a promising start to the complex problem of curbing sectarian violence and convincing the Iraqi population to stand up and fight against al-Qaeda.

I'm more than willing to throw out the supporting evidence to back up these claims. The first one is that Iraqi casualties are down since the completion of the surge. Let's take a look at the news from the month of June on the Iraqi casualty rate:

The number of civilians killed in Iraq fell sharply in June to the lowest monthly total since a US-backed security clampdown was launched in February, new figure from the Iraqi government figures showed.

The data, obtained from the ministries of interior, defence and health, showed 1227 civilians died violently in June, a 36 per cent drop from May.

US military officials said it was premature to draw conclusions about the effects of the crackdown, which is seen as a last ditch effort to avert full-scale sectarian civil war between majority Shi'ites and minority Sunni Arabs.

"We continue to be cautiously optimistic, we are still very early in this process," said US military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Christopher Garver.

From the reporting coming out of Iraq, July is looking equally as positive, and we're increasingly curbing sectarian violence. Part of this change had to do with a new strategy in al-Anbar of getting groups to fight alongside us, instead of against us. Michael Yon reports that groups like the 1920s, a revolutionary brigade, are now fighting alongside. Cut to page 22 of the June progress report to Congress, and you get this handy graphic:

Democrats have been crying that sectarian violence, and not al-Qaeda in Iraq, has been the biggest problem. We're working on improving that situation, so we can more precisely focus on the organized international terror elements that are working in Iraq. As you can see, the situation is improving dramatically.

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