SOME GOOD NEWS, SOME BAD NEWS

First, the good:

Militant Group Is Out of Baghdad, U.S. Says
By DAMIEN CAVE
Published: November 8, 2007

BAGHDAD, Nov. 7 — American forces have routed , the Iraqi militant network, from every neighborhood of Baghdad, a top American general said today, allowing American troops involved in the “surge” to depart as planned.

"Murder victims are down 80 percent from where they were at the peak," and attacks involving improvised bombs are down 70 percent, he said.

General Fil attributed the decline to improvements in the Iraqi security forces, a cease-fire ordered by the Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr, the disruption of financing for insurgents, and, most significant, Iraqis’ rejection of “the rule of the gun.”

Now, remember how were "fighting them over there so we don't have ot fight them here?" Well, not so much:

Exclusive: FBI: Al Qaeda May Strike U.S. Shopping Malls in LA, Chicago
November 08, 2007 11:48 AM

Richard Esposito and Vic Walter Report:

The FBI is warning that al Qaeda may be preparing a series of holiday attacks on U.S. shopping malls in Los Angeles and Chicago, according to an intelligence report distributed to law enforcement authorities across the country this morning.

The wingnuts are all excited about the good news and whining that the Times "can't bring itself to say we won. " Well, there's good reason the Times didn't write that:

He and other military commanders have maintained for months that the conditions for national reconciliation have been met. They argue that Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, the homegrown Sunni extremist group that American intelligence agencies say is foreign-led, has been weakened. They cite in particular the rise of the American-supported citizen volunteers — 67,000 nationwide, according to military figures.

And though Sunni extremist groups could revive and “reinfest very quickly,” General Fil said, Iraq’s leaders should now have the peace they need to build a trusted, cross-sectarian government. But progress toward that, he said, has been “disappointing.”

The greatest challenge of the coming months, he said, will be satisfying the delicate hopes and expectations of Iraqis, who see security not as an end, but just as a beginning.