Iraq casualties for December '07 stay near November levels

What does it mean?

Some believe that data such as that reflected above has no value at all because the "documented" deaths are simply those the governments wants the public to know about. They believe that the press is controlled tightly enough to allow the government to more-or-less spin the data as it pleases. And there is probably some element of truth to that. Assuming any significant number of "undocumented" deaths, the actual number of deaths cannot help but exceed the number of documented deaths.

It isn't quite possible to entirely hide information under a rock these days, however. People in Iraq have cell phones and computers. Not in the numbers that the Japanese have them, but they're there. Information will get out one way or another. The people who go to Iraq lately (without any exception of which I am aware) have noted that Iraq seems more peaceful than it did before the surge strategy had time to effect change. Markets have reopened, and the daily routines of life have been largely reestablished.

In short, there's no denying that the the path toward sectarian civil war has been stalled if not entirely thwarted.

Now the opportunity exists for Iraq to establish the first Arab democracy and spread that model to its neighbors. In the global war on Islamic terrorism this is a key move. The United States should not shy from coaxing Iraq along the path toward good governance.

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