The President talked about Iraq this morning and there’s some great progress being made. A big thanks should go to our military personnel for the outstanding job they are doing in the war on terrorism. I salute you!

Unfortunately, I imagine it won’t be very long for the detractors to try and cut holes in this good news, because they want to make the war all political all the time.

Some of the key things the President spoke about include:

-Violence is down to its lowest level since the spring of 2004

-Iraqi forces now have 192 combat battalions in the fight — and more than 110 of these battalions are taking the lead in combat operations against terrorists and extremists.

-The Iraqi Council of Representatives has passed several major pieces of legislation this year, and Iraqi leaders are preparing for provincial elections.

-All five of the combat brigades and the three Marine units that were sent to Iraq as part of the surge have been brought home.

-They are also reducing the length of combat tours in Iraq. Beginning tomorrow, troops deploying to Iraq will serve 12-month tours instead of 15-month tours.

It was also recently reported that we lost eleven military members in July which is the lowest monthly toll since the 2003 invasion. Iraqi civilian deaths are down as well.

All in all, this is pretty good news and the surge worked as John McCain felt it would when he first pushed for it back in 2003. Will Barack Obama finally agree that the surge was the right thing to do? I doubt it. Obama is lost when it comes to defense and national security issues.

I would expect more troop reductions to start taking place later this year and into next year, depending on what our military leaders decide. There should be no timeline set as this gives the enemy hope. We are winning in Iraq, but we must continue to be aggressive and vigilant because the world is a very dangerous place.