Iraq was a daily, front-page story when the U.S. was doing badly. Now that we’re making definite strides forward, there is what amounts to a media blackout. Rich Lowry notes:


“In Israel, there’s a law that bans reporting on sensitive national-security operations; you could be forgiven for thinking that the U.S. has a similar ban on any encouraging news from the hottest battlefront in the war on terror. The United States might be the only country in world history that reverse-propagandizes itself, magnifying its setbacks and ignoring its successes so that nothing can disturb what Sen. Joe Lieberman calls the ‘narrative of defeat.'”


Ralph Peters, an expert on military matters, sees the same phenomenon:


“All those reporters, editors and producers who predicted – longed for – an American defeat have moved on to more pressing strategic issues, such as O.J.’s latest shenanigans.


“Oh, if you turned to the inner pages of the “leading” newspapers, you found grudging mention of the fact that roadside-bomb attacks are down by half and indirect-fire attacks by three-quarters while the number of suicide bombings has plummeted.


“Far fewer Iraqi civilians are dying at the hands of extremists. U.S. and Coalition casualty rates have fallen dramatically. The situation has changed so unmistakably and so swiftly that we should be reading proud headlines daily.


“Where are they? Is it really so painful for all those war-porno journos to accept that our military – and the Iraqis – may have turned the situation around? Shouldn’t we read and see and hear a bit of praise for today’s soldiers and the progress they’re making?


“The media’s new trick is to concentrate coverage on our wounded, mouthing platitudes while using military amputees as props to suggest that, no matter what happens in Iraq, everything’s still a disaster.


“God knows, I sympathize with – and respect – those who’ve sacrificed life or limb in our country’s service. I just hate to see them used as political tools.”