Happy New Year, Part 2

MANIFESTO

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, may 2008 be a better year than 2007 was.

The second half of 2007 saw violence drop dramatically in Iraq, but the progress came at a high price: The year was the deadliest for the U.S. military since the 2003 invasion, with 899 troops killed.

Of course,

American commanders and diplomats ... say the battlefield gains against insurgents such as al-Qaida in Iraq offer only a partial picture of where the country stands as the war moves toward its five-year mark in March.

The AP doesn't note that these "American commanders and diplomats"—an apparent reference to Ryan Crocker and David Petraeus—are hand-picked Bush loyalists who can't be expected to do anything other than to toe the party line.

The AP can try to spin this story as positively as it wants, but it can't downplay this futile tragedy to 899 American families.