Michael Fumento

Perhaps the MSM is catching on that in terms of combat, it's not Baghdad but Ramadi that's the fiercest city in the country. Featuring a photo by my AP colleague Todd Pitman from the April 22, 2006 firefight we were both in, Time magazine's December 11 online edition declares: "Tallies of the war dead from August to November show that more than two-thirds of the U.S. casualties in Iraq were outside Baghdad, with four in 10 of those deaths occurring in Anbar Province. Much of the killing happens in Ramadi, where insurgents and fighters from al-Qaeda in Iraq attack Marines, U.S. soldiers and Iraqi security forces almost daily."

Yet the writer, who appears to have spent most of his time in Camp Ramadi's hospital witnessing all manner of horrible wounds, in an audio feed, says conditions in the city do appear to be improving.