New York Times Pulls Head out of Sand...

...and is astonished:

Still, this has so far been a year of heartening surprises - each one remarkable in itself, and taken together truly astonishing. The Bush administration is entitled to claim a healthy share of the credit for many of these advances. It boldly proclaimed the cause of Middle East democracy at a time when few in the West thought it had any realistic chance.

In interest of full disclosure, I have to admit that I was not much of a supporter of the Iraq invasion. Not because I was against the concept in principle, but because I thought the risk was awfully high. However, it's been obvious to me for many months that things have been going far better in the middle east than the New York Times has been reporting. Maybe they should find some journalists with some objectivity, rather than continuing to rely on their current staff, who seem to parrot anti-Bush vitriol regardless of what is actually happening in the world. There was no reason to suddenly become astonished.