Just The Facts, Ma'am.

CNN's had some decent reporting on Iraq lately (rare on cable news), mostly the reports from their Iraq-based correspondent Michael Ware, like the one I posted last week.

Here's another noteworthy clip from this past weekend, in which Wolf Blitzer interviewed Rep. Boustany (R-LA). Boustany did his job, repeating all the talking points on 'progress' from the surge, and Blitzer did his job, using pesky facts to debunk that-



A detailed AP analysis looks at the Anbar Province-related talking points.

And some relevant snippets from a new Newsweek piece, on the increasing Shiite dominance of power in the heart of Iraq, accentuates the points Blitzer made-

The surge of U.S. troops—meant in part to halt the sectarian cleansing of the Iraqi capital—has hardly stemmed the problem. The number of Iraqi civilians killed in July was slightly higher than in February, when the surge began. According to the Iraqi Red Crescent, the number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) has more than doubled to 1.1 million since the beginning of the year, nearly 200,000 of those in Baghdad governorate alone...

...When Gen. David Petraeus goes before Congress next week to report on the progress of the surge, he may cite a decline in insurgent attacks in Baghdad as one marker of success. In fact, part of the reason behind the decline is how far the Shiite militias' cleansing of Baghdad has progressed: they've essentially won.

A Washington Post article weighing the results of the surge has similar findings. At one point, it notes that a marketplace Petraeus has been taking congressfolk to (to show 'progress') is not what it seems. In reality, the market owners have been flooded with U.S. cash just to stay open at all, and business is virtually non-existent due to limited resources and fortress-like security measures. "Personally, I think it's a false representation," said one soldier working that beat, "But what can I say? I'm just doing my job and don't ask questions."

If this translates into 'success' and 'improvement' then the bar is set deadly low.