Violence in Iraq is down for US forces to the third lowest level ever.

AT LEAST 29 US troops died in Iraq in February, the third-lowest monthly casualty toll for the US military since the American-British invasion in 2003. Troop fatalities declined from 40 in January, and from 81 in February 2007.

Which means al-Qaeda is not able to target our forces with impunity, even as these same US forces are on the hunt and pushing al-Qaeda out of their final toe-holds in Iraq. So what can a blood-thirsty mob of criminals do to demonstrate their viability? Kill fellow Muslims of course:

Violent civilian deaths in Iraq rose 36 percent in February from the previous month after a series of large-scale bombings blamed on al Qaeda, Iraqi government figures showed on Saturday.

A total of 633 civilians died violently in February, compared with 466 in January, according to figures released by Iraq’s interior, defense and health ministries. It was the first increase after six consecutive months of falling casualty tolls.

Despite its sharp rise, the February 2008 figure was still dramatically lower than the 1,645 civilians who died violently in the same month a year ago. A total of 701 civilians were wounded, compared with 2,700 a year ago.

The message is clear, al-Qaeda needs dead bodies and Iraqi Muslims will do in a pinch to gain headlines in the Western Media. It is not lost on anyone (except the BDS driven left) that al-Qaeda is the enemy of Islam, not its future. This is especially obvious to the Iraqis and other Arab nations who can see who is reaping the benefits of al-Qaeda’s actions.

The world’s eyes are being opened to the reality of anti-Americanism run amok. The world’s eyes are now open to the true promise of al-Qaeda’s religious fanaticism – massacre after massacre which rips apart families and communities. While some still obsess with the religious right in America, the specters that some liberals see from the devoutly religious in the West pale with the carnage and suffering created by the Islamo Fascists – who were once so ‘in vogue’ as the negotiating partners to create world peace.

Today the idea of negotiating peace with al-Qaeda, the Taliban, the Mad Mullahs of Iran, Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebonan and their state sponsors in Syria are the last delusions of the naive. These thugs provide dead and crushed bodies as their entry fee to talks. They use rivers of blood as their negotiating card to gain financial assistance from richer nations. They use violence and death to keep their people in line. Why would anyone think we should reward such tactics with credibility and negotiations?