And I'm sure that there are plenty of folks out there who find it particularly galling that we are headed towards success in that country.

President Bush offered an upbeat assessment on Friday of progress in Iraq, saying that while corruption remained a problem and unemployment was high, the economy was growing, violence was down and, “slowly but surely, the people of Iraq are reclaiming a normal society.”

Speaking to 1,300 graduates of the Army’s basic training camp here, Mr. Bush gave his first progress report on Iraq since September, when he announced that his troop buildup would come to an end by next spring, with reductions beginning at the end of this year.

In the September speech, the president called the new strategy “return on success,” a phrase he reiterated in his remarks here on Friday.

To make his case that the strategy is working, Mr. Bush ticked off a litany of statistics. Since the buildup was completed in June, he said, the number of attacks each week involving I.E.D.’s, or improvised explosive devices, had dropped by half. The number of American military deaths, he said, had fallen to its lowest level in 19 months.

With Karbala Province moving to Iraqi control this week, Mr. Bush said Iraqis were now responsible for security in 8 of Iraq’s 18 provinces.

“The Iraqis are becoming more capable, and our military commander tells me that these gains are making possible what I call ‘return on success,’” Mr. Bush said. “That means we’re slowly bringing some of our troops home — and now we’re doing it from a position of strength.”

The article does make a snippy comment about finding friendly audiences on military bases, but at least the NYT reporters have the integrity to mention the progress in Iraq. Frankly, I'm surprised the editors didn't dump the entire story due to the fact that it doesn't fit with the narrative that the paper wants -- one that supports retreat and surrender, not victory.

And there are these additional details, of course, that get planted at the end of the article.

“We’re seeing improvements in important economic indicators,” he said. “Inflation has been cut in half. Electricity production in September reached its highest levels since the war began — and higher than it was under Saddam Hussein.”

And here we keep being told by the Left that things are so bad in Iraq -- I guess that is only true if you ignore the facts on the ground, like Half-Wit Harry Reid does in this article.

I wonder -- how did America fight wars in the day when it had a loyal opposition party in Congress?

OPEN TRACKBACKING AT Outside the Beltway, Stop the ACLU, Perri Nelson's Website, The Virtuous Republic, The Midnight Sun, , , Right Truth, The Populist, Shadowscope, Wake Up America, Stuck On Stupid, Leaning Straight Up, The Amboy Times, Pursuing Holiness, Adeline and Hazel, third world county, Woman Honor Thyself, Pirate's Cove, The Pink Flamingo, CommonSenseAmerica, Stageleft, Church and State, Blog @ MoreWhat.com, A Blog For All, The Random Yak, 123beta, Adam's Blog, Grizzly Groundswell, Webloggin, The Bullwinkle Blog, Cao's Blog, Phastidio.net, Big Dog's Weblog, Conservative Cat, Nuke's, The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns, The World According to Carl, Blue Star Chronicles, Wolf Pangloss, and The Yankee Sailor, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.