“Will 5,000 American deaths be enough?” thundered Bob Herbert of the New York Times (06/26/06).  “Ten thousand?  The killing continued unabated last week.  Iraq is a sinkhole of destruction….”

Well, one half of 2006 has passed, and Bob Herbert is wrong.  Whether one assesses U.S. casualties, Iraqi civilian casualties, or casualties among the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF), the killing has abated.  Taken as a whole, the pattern of violence in Iraq reflects an insurgency that is unable to defeat American troops, unable to defeat Iraqi troops, and barely able to maintain terror against unarmed civilians.

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