Iraq War fiasco paying off

It still may not be too late for Democrats in the United States government to wrest failure from the jaws of victory, but huge strides are taking place in Iraq:

BAGHDAD — Iraqi troops pushed deep into Sadr City on Tuesday as the Iraqi government sought to establish control over the district, a densely populated Shiite enclave in the Iraqi capital.

The long-awaited military operation, which took place without the involvement of American ground forces, was the first determined effort by the government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki to assert control over the sprawling Baghdad neighborhood, which has been a bastion of support for Moktada al-Sadr, the rebel cleric.
(The New York Times)

Key military operations (Mosul, Sadr City) continue in Iraq while the death toll appears on its way to finishing near the December '07 dip for this month, extrapolating the early May numbers from Iraq Coalition Casualty Count.

Despite tactical mistakes, the United States should be proud of deposing Saddam Hussein, ensuring that Hussein could not continue to play the United Nations while remaining prepared to produce WMD, and (though it's still early) transitioning Iraq from brutal dictatorship to a representative democracy minus a big Iranian thumb-print.

Hat tip to Power Line.
Minor update notice--fixed a careless error by substituting "victory" for "defeat" in the first line of the post.