Displaced Iraqis returning

Talk about rapid validation of a prediction.

In a post just a few days ago, I took on a story in the U.K.'s Independent that used the number of displaced Iraqis to support the claim that "murderous violence" in Iraq had not declined.

The report referenced by Doyle indicates that military operations have tended to stabilize some areas, with resulting destabilization in other areas. The latter destabilized areas become the new targets for stabilization, and with the "clear and hold" strategy implemented by Gen. David Petraeus, an expectation that the troop surge will end up addressing the displacement problem seems reasonable. Predictably, none of that ends up in Doyle's story.

(The Independent: The level of "murderous violence" in Iraq has not declined)

The author, Leonard Doyle, had made a poorly reasoned argument in the first place but nonetheless I find it gratifying that my final paragraph has found some empirical justification mere days after I wrote it.

BAGHDAD (AP) - In a dramatic turnaround, more than 3,000 Iraqi families driven out of their Baghdad neighborhoods have returned to their homes in the past three months as sectarian violence has dropped, the government said Saturday.

Saad al-Azawi, his wife and four children are among them. They fled to Syria six months ago, leaving behind what had become one of the capital's more dangerous districts—west Baghdad's largely Sunni Khadra region.

(Breitbart.com)

We'll have to wait and see what other bad news the stalwart press can squeeze out of the positive happenings in Iraq. There's always the plight Iraqi gravediggers in light of the depressed market for funeral services, I suppose.

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