Monday, February 18, 2008

Iraq Attacks Down 80%

Story here. h/t: Drudge Report

Rather little-reported, isn't it? Good news, and the MSM doesn't really care much.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Attacks by insurgents and rival sectarian militias have fallen up to 80 percent in Baghdad and concrete blast walls that divide the capital could soon be removed, a senior Iraqi military official said on Saturday.

Lieutenant-General Abboud Qanbar said the success of a year-long clampdown named "Operation Imposing Law" had reined in the savage violence between majority Shi'ites and minority Sunni Arabs dominant under Saddam Hussein.

(...)

In the six weeks to the end of 2006, an average of 43 bodies were found dumped in the city each day as fierce sectarian fighting threatened to turn into full-scale civil war.

That figure fell to four a day in 2008, in the period up to February 12, said Qanbar, who heads the Baghdad security operation.

Well, this is big news. Why not make a big deal? Why choose instead to focus on daily casualty reports whilst ignoring the big picture? Why ignore the forest and focus stoically on each tree in isolation from the whole?

Further, and this is material for Canada:

I'd suggest an "Operation Imposing Law" campaign to effect the same result in Afghanistan, although it'll still require more international military help to accomplish this.

So why not? Does the world want the evil, hateful Taliban to win?