And Hot Air commenter Kowboy wants to know if it’s the last page. If not, someone might lose their job over this. If horrendous news comes out of Iraq, it certainly wouldn’t take you long to find it in The New York Times Slimes. But good news, especially al Qaeda getting routed from Baghdad? Check page A19.

American forces have routed Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, the Iraqi militant network, from every neighborhood of Baghdad, a top American general said today, allowing American troops involved in the “surge” to depart as planned.

Maj. Gen. Joseph F. Fil Jr., commander of United States forces in Baghdad, also said that American troops had yet to clear some 13 percent of the city, including Sadr City and several other areas controlled by Shiite militias. But, he said, “there’s just no question” that violence had declined since a spike in June.

“Murder victims are down 80 percent from where they were at the peak,” and attacks involving improvised bombs are down 70 percent, he said.

Bryan sums it up well:

The surge is among the reasons for the decline in violence, along with the “awakenings,” improvements in the Iraqi army and the abatement of militia violence. The war in Iraq is too complex to be won or lost on any of those factors and a few others besides…

The bottom line is that as things are going now, we’re winning in Iraq. I didn’t say we’ve won, just that we’re winning.

And we wouldn’t want that to get out to the American people, now would we?