Let's celebrate good news

This may be hard for some of you who read my blog (and you know who you are) but some people are seeing *whisper* victory in Iraq. Don't say it too loud now. The mainstream media might hear. (emphasis mine)

Mileposts: As President Bush's term winds down, signs are there that the war on terror is being won. The conflict in Iraq is ebbing, and worldwide terror attacks are down. When will someone call it what it is? VICTORY.

..........

Back from the front, Gen. David Petraeus called on Congress Thursday to begin considering a drawdown of U.S. troops after five years of war. Violence in Iraq has plunged to its lowest levels since 2004, and al-Qaida is a tattered shadow of its formerself — key leaders dead, successors weak and recruiting down.
......

This is no Saigon-style exit, but a coming victorious end of a long conflict. U.S. forces have pounded al-Qaida into irrelevance.

Using highly disciplined Special Forces strikes, advanced intelligence and communications, and local allies in the right places, 155,000 U.S. troops have been crushing a vicious enemy motivated by no rational forces in a war with no precedent.

They are winning against all odds, overcoming not just terrorists, but other obstacles such as a lumbering Pentagon bureaucracy and weak-kneed Western intelligentsia whose media toadies trump every military error and harp on every isolated bad deed.

The good news doesn't stop there: (emphasis mine)

Worldwide terror attacks have fallen off 40% since 2001, according to a study by Canada's Human Security Report Project, and support for al-Qaida in the Arab world has collapsed. The study found terror attacks had been overcounted because Iraq War atrocities distorted the figures. Security gains elsewhere included even sub-Saharan Africa, where the improvement was called "extraordinary."

On this Memorial Day weekend, this is very good news indeed. Don't fight the feeling, even if you disagreed with this war. Be happy for this, ok?

God bless the men and women in uniform. We are grateful for your service and your sacrifice. You rock.

*note: I'll be out of town this weekend, so if you don't see your comments, be patient! (and try to be nice too!)

h/t BigDog