Go with what you know, Mr. Elving.

I read an interestingly uninformed article from Ron Elving on NPR's site today. Perhaps the title of his column should help him in determining when he actually knows what he's talking about - "Watching Washington." Certainly not watching Iraq. Because if he HAD been watching Iraq (from the inside rather than from the sidelines...in Washington), he'd see the difference in the insurgency from where it stood a year ago. Throughout most of the country, direct fire attacks on coalition forces have been abandoned by the insurgents due to unacceptably high losses. IED attacks have decreased in effectiveness as better-protected vehicles have reached the theater. While last year there were large sections of Baghdad in which US forces could expect heavy contact whenever they ventured through, the threat has changed to much smaller pockets where insurgents furtively place IEDs before slipping away. What remains of the insurgency are skilled, hard-core terrorists - much smaller in number than a year ago. The favorite attack? Suicide bombers - again, largely ineffective against Coalition forces but great for convincing those on the sidelines that the battle is worsening rather than improving. The Japanese did not resort to Kamikaze attacks until other means of resistance had proven futile. Remember that point, Mr. Elving.