Following the money on Iraq

Hat tip to American Power for pointing the way to Nancy Morgan's essay on Iraq, "We Won":

America, its allies and the Iraqi people have won the war against terror in Iraq. How do we know? Simple. Just follow the money. European and Asian investment companies are beating a path to Iraq, money in hand. Iraqi Airlines is flying high thanks to a colossal $5.5 billion contract with Boeing and the United Arab Emirates just canceled billions of dollars of Iraqi debt as they moved to restore a diplomatic mission in Baghdad.

When foreign countries start investing billions of dollars in a country, its a safe bet they are aware of the risks involved. And, unlike the old news media and our elected Democrat officials, they see a relatively stable country ripe for investment.

The influx of foreign investment is largely due to the improved security in Iraq, which continues to improve even after the withdrawal of nearly 25% of U.S. combat brigades. The Joint Chiefs of Staff recently acknowledged cautiously that security 'is on its way to becoming sustainable.'

Meanwhile, in the "reality-based community" we have the following (this one from Kathy at "Comments from Left Field":

God, I’m so tired of this:

• First of all, isn’t this, like, the 67,986th time we’ve “turned the corner”? Which “final and critical campaign” is this one? There’ve been quite a few, you know.
• Second, pardon me if I don’t jump up and down screaming and waving the red, white, and blue at the statement that Al Qaeda is “close to dead.” Al Qaeda is a very small part of the violence in Iraq. And Al Qaeda wasn’t even in Iraq until after the U.S. invaded, so “killing” it is only correcting a problem we caused to begin with. It hardly constitutes “winning” the war.
• Third, who is getting those oil contracts? Why are you so happy to have it confirmed for you that all the blood that’s been spilled in Iraq was, indeed, spilled for oil.

Kathy keeps right on going for two more bullet points, all this after suggesting that Andrew Sullivan was quaffing Kool-aid when he published an article on July 6 noting progress in the Iraq War.

Try following Kathy's link in support of Al Qaeda being a "very small part" of the violence in Iraq and try to figure out what she wants you to read. It might as well be a phantom citation since it leads to a lengthy Wikipedia entry with no apparent information that would unambiguously support Kathy's claim.

Keepin' it real in the Reality-based community, I suppose.