The Conservative Revolution

Hat tip to The Weekly Standard’s Stephen Hayes.

So how does it feel to be used as a propaganda tool against your own country? McDermott, who was asked that question by CNN’s Jane Arraf when he was still in Baghdad, said it feels fine. “If being used means that we’re highlighting the suffering of Iraqi children, or any children, then, yes, we don’t mind being used.”

The Drudge Report has a prominent link to this story on its website. It would be embarrassing to most folks, but the anti-war left will probably just say that getting Saddam’s propaganda out there was worth every penny.

Red State has a good post about the surge in Iraq. They link over to a story in a New York Times blog post entitled “Taking Back a Qaeda Stronghold” that notes,

Jihadists flourished here, American commanders say, manufacturing car bombs and sending them up the road for the short trip into the capital.

But last year, violence fell drastically. American commanders cite three main reasons: the United States troop surge, which provided the combat power to take on the insurgents, the decision to withdraw troops from large bases far outside Iraqi towns and put them closer to the population, and the decision by local Sunnis to follow the model of the Anbar Province tribal Awakening by turning against Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia and cooperating with the Americans to fight it.

The town that the blogger is describing is Arab Jabour, which was once an al Qaeda stronghold. As Red State points out, if we were to leave when Senator Obama wants us to, it would make it easier for al Qaeda to take this area back.