Michael Yon:

I was at home in the United States just one day before the magnitude hit me like vertigo: America seems to be under a glass dome which allows few hard facts from the field to filter in unless they are attached to a string of false assumptions. Considering that my trip home coincided with General Petraeus’ testimony before the US Congress, when media interest in the war was (I’m told) unusually concentrated, it’s a wonder my eardrums didn’t burst on the trip back to Iraq. In places like Singapore, Indonesia, and Britain people hardly seemed to notice that success is being achieved in Iraq, while in the United States Britney was competing for airtime with O.J. in one of the saddest sideshows on Earth.

No thinking person would look at last year’s weather reports to judge whether it will rain today, yet we do something similar with Iraq news. The situation in Iraq has drastically changed, but the inertia of bad news leaves many convinced that the mission has failed beyond recovery, that all Iraqis are engaged in sectarian violence, or are waiting for us to leave so they can crush their neighbors. This view allows our soldiers two possible roles: either “victim caught in the crossfire” or “referee between warring parties.” Neither, rightly, is tolerable to the American or British public.

Key words here being "thinking person."

Read the whole thing, and hit his tip jar so he can keep reporting.

The question isn't whether we are succeeding or failing in Iraq; the question is will the end result be worth the cost, in lives and treasure? This idea that success in Iraq will re-shape the Middle East (in a positive way) is highly speculative (and borders on fantasy) at best, yet it is treated by those who support the war as a given.

Andy, you're entitled to your fantasies, too. Some people treat catastrophe as a given, too, but if one only takes actions based on such an assessment, a positive outcome is vanishingly unlikely. To advocate retreat _now_, when success actually seems to be gaining ground, would guarantee failure.

In other words, nothing ventured, nothing gained. Naysaying is easy.

I just donated $125 to Michael Yon. Next?