Subtle yet effective media bias

Instapundit points us to this fascinating editorial in today’s Washington Post by a major in the Marine Corps,

Why is there such a dramatic divergence between American public opinion and the upbeat assessment of the men and women doing the fighting?

The impression of Iraq as an unfathomable quagmire is false and dangerously misleading.

It is this false impression that has led us to a moment of national truth.

We can fail only if the false imagery of quagmire takes hold and our national political will is broken. In that event, both the Iraqi people and the American troops will pay a long-term price for our shortsighted delusion.

Read the whole thing.

Tough week for the Domestic Insurgents. Selling a strategy of retreat and defeat is not easy when the signs of progress are all around.

“The idea that we’re going to win this war is an ideal that unfortunately is just plain wrong.”

Apparently, pro-Saddam Sunni’s know something Howard Dean doesn’t,

FALLUJA/RAMADI Iraq (Reuters) -Saddam Hussein loyalists who violently opposed January elections have made an about-face as Thursday’s polls near, urging fellow Sunni Arabs to vote and warning al Qaeda militants not to attack.

In a move unthinkable in the bloody run-up to the last election, guerrillas in the western insurgent heartland of Anbar province say they are even prepared to protect voting stations from fighters loyal to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, leader of al Qaeda in Iraq.

Captain Ed,

It demonstrates that the Iraqis, even the Sunnis, have begun to understand the importance of the upcoming elections and the fact that Americans won’t leave until the country has been secured for democracy. They’re not ready to turn in their weapons yet, but a strong showing for the Sunnis at the ballot box might result in a deal for the native Iraqi insurgency to turn in their weapons to the new Iraqi Army. That will place even more pressure on the Zarqawi network to give up and get out.

It’s beginning to look a lot more like victory — everywhere but in Howard Dean’s office and the American media, which continues to ignore these developments.

A new ABC News poll shows that the people of Iraq sense this momentum,

Broad Optimism in Iraq

Surprising levels of optimism prevail in Iraq with living conditions improved, security more a national worry than a local one, and expectations for the future high. But views of the country’s situation overall are far less positive, and there are vast differences in views among Iraqi groups â?? a study in contrasts between increasingly disaffected Sunni areas and vastly more positive Shiite and Kurdish provinces.

An ABC News poll in Iraq, conducted with Time magazine and other media partners, includes some remarkable results: Despite the daily violence there, most living conditions are rated positively, seven in 10 Iraqis say their own lives are going well, and nearly two-thirds expect things to improve in the year ahead.

News from Afghanistan wasn’t much better for the Domestic Insurgents. John Kerry was on Imus this week rambling about Tora Bora and how he thinks this is still a huge story. His only measure of progress is whether or not we catch Osama. Anything to criticize Bush. Look at what he’s missing,

77 percent of Afghans say their country is headed in the right direction â?? compared with 30 percent in the vastly better-off United States. Ninety-one percent prefer the current Afghan government to the Taliban regime, and 87 percent call the U.S.-led overthrow of the Taliban good for their country. Osama bin Laden, for his part, is as unpopular as the Taliban; nine in 10 view him unfavorably.

Progress fuels these views: Despite the country’s continued problems, 85 percent of Afghans say living conditions there are better now than they were under the Taliban. Eighty percent cite improved freedom to express political views. And 75 percent say their security from crime and violence has improved as well. After decades of oppression and war, many Afghans see a better life.

And in the broader war on terror, Al Qaida #2 Laments ‘Impediments to Jihad‘

CAIRO, Egypt — In a tape that surfaced Sunday, Osama bin Laden’s deputy urged all Muslims to take up arms, saying a refusal to join the fight against ”the Cross and Zionism” was a ”malignant illness” that would lead to the defeat of militant Islam.

Egyptian-born Ayman al-Zawahri said the global Islamic community had ”no hope for victory” until all Muslims signed on to the al-Qaida-led jihad.

”As long as this malignant illness continues to survive within us, there is no hope for victory and there can only be more defeats, tragedies, disasters and betrayals,” al-Zawahri said.

The Domestic Insurgents are so blinded by hatred of George Bush they are willing to ignore all this, not to mention events across the broader Middle East from Lybia to Lebanon to Saudi Arabia. They are wrong on their analysis of the situation, and on the wrong side of history for betting against the United States and the forces of freedom.

Americans don’t follow defeatists.