The surge is working, bad news for Democrats.

I have been saying for a year or more that the military owes the American people an explanation of what is happening in Iraq. Not the explanation Harry Ried and Nancy Peloisi want, an explanation of why we are loosing and how the military is broken down and falling apart at the seems and in desperate need of retreat, I mean redeployment, far away from Iraq. No what I have been asking for is what Paul Harvey calls 'The rest of the story"

How many hundreds of newscasts begin with a smoldering car in the background and scenes of broken bodies being rushed away? That seems to be what most Americans think of the war in Iraq. American soldiers driving around doing little good and waiting to be blown up in an IED attack. The Administration has done a terrible job of showing the people they serve just what our brave soldiers are doing in Iraq and Afghanistan. US soldiers are killing the enemy, and they are very good at it, when given the opportunity.

President Bush today, in a speech delivered to a VFW gathering, told the public what it desperately needed to hear; we are stacking up dead terrorist like cord wood. The US has killed 1,500 a month since January, over 10,000 jihadists sent to paradise in 8 months. That is good news, better news would be that these numbers trend down as the news gets out to the rest of the radical Muslim world that a trip to Iraq is one way ticket to a speedy death.

Al Jazeera is not telling the world that we are laying waste to the terrorist, they want to talk about this being Bush's Viet Nam, well so does ABC News but that not a surprise either. The surge is working and Democrats are troubled with its success. House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.)

Many Democrats have anticipated that, at best, Petraeus and U.S. ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker would present a mixed analysis of the success of the current troop surge strategy, given continued violence in Baghdad. But of late there have been signs that the commander of U.S. forces might be preparing something more generally positive. Clyburn said that would be “a real big problem for us.”

If all you hear from the MSM is the number of Americans killed a month without any context as to the amount of terrorist they are killing, you will get the impression these soldiers are dying for no reason, a claim trumpeted by the left with every breath. These soldiers are not sacrificing their lives to enrich Dick Cheney or to 'take the oil', these brave American soldiers, young and not so young, men and women of all races all religions and all backgrounds are fighting to change a region of the world where change is not easily made. They are fighting to keep the terrorist pinned down and if possible, kill them.

Now before you start in with the Iraqi government isn't doing anything, and they never will and the surge is failing because the politicians aren't getting anywhere, let me just say that I am not very happy with the Presidents praise of Maliki. I have not been impressed with what I have seen from the man and his government, but then again, I don't sit in on cabinet meetings where there is a good chance the meeting could be interrupted by a random mortar attack.

The first decade of our democracy was one roller coaster ride of crisis after crisis that threaten to dissolve the government. We should be patient, but not lethargic. We need to see political progress and soon. The surge cannot last at these levels without holding troops over their deployments. In January many soldiers will be scheduled to rotate home. They deserve a hero's welcome. I think they will get it.