First of all, if anyone calls Michael Yon a sunny optimist, they obviously haven't been reading him much. I'd say he has a very realistic view of what's going on--certainly at least as realistic as AP stories from anonymous stringers. Yon was one of the first to stand up and declare that yes, we are dealing with a civil war over there. He got a lot of grief for it from some quarters.

Another good Yon article here.

There is a broad range of milbloggers, with a broad range of opinions. If you are getting all your war news from MSNBC, you are missing a lot of the story. As with any other blogs, you need to apply your own judgment and experience on the information presented, and look at a wide range of sources.

As far as the two I've listed, they're over there, and getting shot at. That says something about the quality of their opinions.

There are some people who are on the other end of optimism, who actually become furiously hostile at the slightest idea that anything at all related to the war might have a positive outcome. That's not "realism" either. I leave their motivations for others to analyze.