Here is a perspective you will not hear in news coverage, so far, from Iraq. When numbers of American soldiers who have died in Iraq are announced, the figures do not note how many American soldiers are dying in America, or Korea, or Germany, or anywhere else they are stationed. A certain number of deaths happen even in peacetime, whether from disease, accidents or violence from other soldiers.
Why does this perspective matter? Because a sizable share of military deaths in Iraq are now represented by non-combat incidents and those numbers tend to minimize what already is being accomplished in Iraq under the Surge. It takes nothing away from the risks run by soldiers on active duty in Iraq or Afghanistan, nor should it blunt the respect and gratitude we bear for those who die in combat, to make this observation. It simply lends perspective to the reality of the war.
In fact, October has been a very low month for American deaths in Iraq and a high one for killings and arrests of terrorists there. Even the 37 or so deaths reported so far in October include non-combat deaths. In some cases the "Iraq" killing even happened in another country; Bahrain, as in the case James Taranto picks up in his Wall Street Journal Best of the Web column. Combat death in Iraq in October came to something like 27.
Far from subduing an insurgency that is supported by the Iraqi people, the Surge has increased the confidence of the Iraqi population that the U.S. can protect them if they report Al Qaeda and other terrorist activity. The reports on this trend are stunning. Among other things, the horrific atrocities against civilians committed by the terrorists, and seldom covered by the American media--who never fail to cover a Congressional hearing on possible use of water boarding of terror leaders--clearly have alienated the population from all the brands of terrorists.
The slow realization and acceptance of these realities are behind the changed climate of political opinion in America, of course. Pro-war sentiment has not revived, but the "withdrawal" camp is dwindling.
You will never get to zero deaths in Iraq, even if the country is entirely pacified and democratic. There will always be some level of violence, not to mention accidents and fatal disease. That is true even in the United States homeland. Victory is not going to be an absence of U.S. deaths in Iraq, but the peaceful transfer of military leadership responsibility to the Iraqis. And that will be a very big victory, indeed.