KABUL, Afghanistan – Six years after the Taliban’s ouster, medical care in Afghanistan has improved such that 89,000 children who would have died before age 5 in 2001 will survive this year, President Hamid Karzai said Sunday.

Saddled for years with one of the world’s worst records on child health, Afghanistan has seen access to health care rise dramatically since the U.S.-led invasion.

Thousands of clinics have been built across the country, and the Afghan government and aid agencies have trained tens of thousands of doctors, vaccinators and health volunteers who now reach into some of the country’s most remote areas.

Access to health care for Afghans has jumped from eight per cent of the population in the 1990s to close to 85 per cent today, thanks in large part to efforts by USAID, the World Bank and the European Commission.

The under-five child mortality rate in Afghanistan has declined from an estimated 257 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2001 to about 191 per 1,000 in 2006, a 25 per cent drop, the Ministry of Public Health said, relying on a new study from Johns Hopkins University.

“This is certainly very positive news,” said the United Nations spokesman in Afghanistan, Adrian Edwards. “To come from such low life expectancy to see this improvement does appear to be an indication that the work on the health sector here is beginning to pay off.”

Anyone “get” the significance of this? Even though there might be some increase in civilian casualties due to collateral damage during air and other strikes, there are still nearly 90,000 children in Iraq who are alive today who would have died under the Taliban regime. And those numbers are going in increase with each passing year we are there.

What they are basically doing is a “refocus”. Rather than focus on the fact that CURRENT casualty rates are the lowest in 3 years, they are attempting to paint a picture of “things are just getting worse with each passing year” by directing the focus to what has already happened this year. Their reporting about 5 hours ago was:

BAGHDAD (AP) — With just under two months left in the year, 2007 is on course to be the deadliest year on record for American forces in Iraq, despite a recent sharp drop in U.S. deaths.

At least 847 American military personnel have died in Iraq so far this year — the second-highest annual toll since the war began in March 2003, according to Associated Press figures.

In 2004, the bloodiest year of the war for the U.S. so far, 850 American troops died.

So basically, they know that they can report “2007 bloodiest year in history of the war” at least up until the first primaries.

AP is absolutely the worse news organization on the planet. They are water boys for the Democrat party and will find a dark lining in any silver cloud when it works to the benefit of the Democrats to do so.

AP should have their news credentials pulled and be registered as a political organization.

“Michael Yon emails: “I’ve been down town on the streets of Baghdad most of Sunday morning and afternoon. Didn’t hear a shot fired, but did see a new road being built.”"

Every time he posts a Prediction, it’s turned out to be wrong!

He’s about the only Leftist Traitor Idiot I’ve ever seen with a 100% Perfect Record of being Wrong!

It’s amazing; a kind of inverse of “Teela’s Luck” from Larry Niven’s Ringworld series!

If I could somehow capture his consistently wrong record of predictions, and use it to my advantage, say at the tables in Las Vegas, I’d be a Millionaire!

Honestly, the Clintons and the Democrats are that crooked and that cynical.