Good News from the Desert?

President Bush made a surprise visit to Iraq yesterday on his way to Australia for the 21-Asian nation summit that will be held later this week. Turns out Bush said if things continue on this path, some soldiers might be able to make the trip home, The New York Times reported:

"After talks with Gen. David H. Patraeus, the top American commander in Iraq, and Ryan C. Crocker, the ambassador to Iraq, Mr. Bush said that they 'tell me that if the kind of success we are now seeing here continues it will be possible to maintain the same level of security with fewer American forces.' "

The Chicago Tribune even noted that United States troop deaths have been cut in half over the three months since the nearly 30,000-troop surge began.

Is it early to start regarding the new strategy with optimism? Taking a look at the face of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki (above) might answer this question.

While it might be easy to get excited about news that a pullout may be on the horizon, it shouldn't be viewed as a victory just yet. According to statistics provided at http://www.icasualties.org/ there may not be anything to celebrate. The Chicago Tribune states there is disagreement on what caused the drop in troop deaths. Regardless, total casualties for the 2007 summer months are still noticeably higher than last year:

And while deaths for United States soldiers have been decreasing since May 2007, the situation is still grim, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office:

" 'Violence remains high, the number of Iraqi security forces capable of conducting independent operations has declined, and militias are not disarmed,' the GAO, the investigating arm of Congress, said."

Note to the president: There's hardly a more telling sign that you've screwed up than when nuns come after you.