In any other era in American history, enemy assaults that resulted in casualty ratios of something like 150 to 1 in our favor would have been considered staggering victories. Sometimes I wonder if the modern newswriter even knows how to spell "victory."

Doing the math, the enemy has lost 3,900 fighters just this year, or more than the U.S. has lost in Iraq in the entire four and a half years of war.

The last three paragraphs were completely gratuitious. I suppose the media feels like if it doesn't let the air out of a story like this, it isn't doing its job. Oddly, the usual routine is to fill the first five paragraphs with bad news and trickle in the good news on the last page.

Oh, almost forgot the traditional question:

What WOULD you do differently?