MSM: "BAGHDAD COMES ALIVE"

NEWSWEEK:

... returning to Baghdad after an absence of four months, I can actually say that things do seem to have gotten better, and in ways that may even be durable. "It's hard to believe," says a friend named Fareed, who has also gone and come back over the years to find the situation always worse, "but this time it's really not." Such words are uttered only grudgingly by those such as me...

• WE BASICALLY WON.

• SOMEONE PLEASE TELL REID, PELOSI, AND THOSE DIMWITS RUNNING FOR THE DEMOCRAT NOMINATION.

• BECAUSE THERE'S STILL A MOP OP OPERATION GOING ON AND WE NEED TO SUPPORT THE MISSION.

KUNA:

A US ranking officer warned Sunday that Al-Qaeda might be planning attacks in Baghdad, accusing Iran anew of funding militants in Iraq.

Rear Admiral Gregory Smith, Multi-National Force's chief of Communication Division, told a news conference that coalition forces were pursuing Al-Qaeda militants in northern Baghdad within operation "Iron Hammer." Smit said coalition forces discovered 51 hideouts of weapons and rockets, as well as arresting hundreds of Al-Qaeda terrorists.

He said terrorist operations were at their lowest since January 2006, and have declined by 55 percent since reinforcements arrived in Iraq last June.

US President George Bush's decision to send another 28,500 soldiers to Iraq made the difference.

Smith said casualties among civilians dropped by 60 percent nationwide.

But he warned that explosives and booby-trapped vehicles were the most dangerous tools of attacks against civilians, coalition and Iraqi forces.

Smit meanwhile accused Iran of funding terrorist operations in Iraq through al-Quds brigades. He said Iran was still posing a serious threat.

Iran remains the prime supplier of weapons, training and funding of militias, he said.

• WE NEED TO STAY UNTIL THE JOB IS DONE - OR THE UNTIL THE IRAQIS CAN HANDLE IT ALL ON THEIR OWN.

THE ONLY THING THAT CAN STOP US NOW ARE THE DEMS.