No Win

CAMP PENDLETON -- The U.S. involvement in Iraq is often judged by numbers. Among the most important are the number of boots on the ground and the number of dead.

When 200 members of the 800-member 2nd Battalion, 5th Regiment extended their enlistments this year so they could accompany the Two-Five back to Iraq, it was significant. No infantry battalion has had as many Marines extend their tours as the Two-Five -- Marines who were "short-timers" and could have ended their service with comfy stateside billets but chose instead to return to Iraq to help less-experienced Marines navigate the dangers.

As the Marines from Two-Five returned here early today, they had a new number to boast about: zero.

In seven months of patrolling the streets of Ramadi, once the most violent city in Anbar province, the 2nd Battalion, 5th Regiment had no Marines or sailors killed and only one injured. In its previous deployment, the battalion's numbers were 15 killed and more than 200 wounded.

BAGHDAD (AFP) — Violence across Iraq has fallen to its lowest level since before the bombing of a Shiite mosque in February 2006 that sparked savage sectarian bloodletting, a US military commander said on Thursday.

There has also been a 50 percent fall-off in violence in Baghdad since January, Lieutenant General Ray Odierno, the number two commander of US-led forces in Iraq, told a press conference in Baghdad.

"Attacks nationwide have fallen to the lowest level since before the Golden Mosque bombing," he said, referring to a bombing which destroyed the revered shrine in Samarra and unleashed a relentless wave of reprisals and counter-reprisals across Iraq that has already killed thousands of Iraqis.

"Car bombs and suicide attacks have dropped to their lowest level in a year," Odierno said. "Attacks in Baghdad have reached the lowest level this year and the trend continues to be down."

Civilian casualties had dropped from a high of about 32 per day to 12 per day, the US commander said.

Iraqi Violence Ebbed in September, Reports Say.

Empty Wards in Iraq Hospitals.

BAGHDAD (AP) — Two of Iraq's most powerful Shiite leaders agreed on Saturday to end a bitter rivalry in a bid to end months of armed clashes and assassinations in the oil-rich south that have threatened to spread into a wider conflict.

Radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, leader of the largest Shiite political party, the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, promised to stop the bloodshed and enhance cooperation between their two movements.

An official in al-Sadr's office in the holy city of Najaf called the agreement a "fresh start."

-----Obviously, it's not in the best interests of the "progressive left" to concede that Iraq violence might be down. Better to trust the NYT opinion person who says "... deaths by car bombs don’t count" or the WaPo opinion person who says "... assassinations only count if you're shot in the back of the head -- not the front." All according to selected "experts" who question the counting methods.

Nevermind that NYT and WaPo and 99.9 percent of the CIA controlled MSM for years sold the public pro-BushCo lies, and continue to service the phony "war on terror" - and keeping us infotained with Lindsay, Bradangie, Paris, Britney, the monthly fallen sports hero and the latest mother who drowned her babies or pimped them (if mothers ruled the world Sally?).

MoveOn.org Silicon Valley entrepreneurial founders who supported John Fony Kerry, will continue to raise millions for Dem candidates who in 2008 - after shutting down part of the Iraq operation and declaring peace - will tell you to blame the long-gone neocons for Joe Blow's America becoming semi third world.

The Senate (always crafting gravely important legislation) voted to repudiate a NYT ad from MoveOn.org which referred to Gen. David Petraeus as "General Betray Us." Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton opposed the measure to repudiate MoveOn, she knows which cackleside her PAC is buttered on – but wait, later she told Tim Russert "I don't believe that should be said about General Petraeus, and I condemn that." (Said after holding her finger in the wind for 2 weeks – pay no attention to that flip-flopper noise.)

Geeze, won't it be nice after 2008 when the Democrats and their Real People Doing Whats Best4You dot.Org supporters bring peace and integrity - and all those

austerity programs?

Sigh, heave ho, there's just no way the US can win in Iraq or anywhere else, sigh. The USA is sick, evil, lost, without friends, whipped by smarter world leaders, surrounded by shadowy Al-Qaeda cells, and repeating the same god'nam historical mistakes. Shame, shame, shame. Hang your heads low, losers. I think I'll write a book - working title:

How to Recover From an Abusive Dysfunctional Government and Learn to Love The Simple Life Standing On Your Own Two Feet When the Global Elite Finally Puts US in Third Place: (subtitle) The Coming Cure For Obesity, After EU and Asian Powers Take First and Second Place.