And while we're all looking at Iraq....

Amidst everything else yesterday, this went by totally unnoticed. The CentCom Plans and Policy guy said that we should expect Afghanistan to get worse in the next year.

U.S. forces in Afghanistan expect violent clashes with al Qaeda-linked insurgents in coming months before security improves later in the year, a senior military officer said on Thursday.....

Moeller played down the strategic threat posed by al Qaeda, the Taliban and other insurgent groups.

"The overall trend line, though, is positive despite the fact that the data is what the data is with regard to U.S. forces who have been killed in the recent past compared to the first couple years," he told the subcommittee.....

The Taliban "appeared tactically stronger on the battlefield this year and they demonstrate an increased willingness to use suicide bomber and IED (improvised explosive device) tactics," he said.

How hard is this guy trying to manipulate the language?

Read the quotes in the last two paragraphs again. Things are going better even though more Americans are dying and more Americans are dying because the other side has drastically improved their tactics.

Show me the progress part again?