Only Half the Story

You'd think listening to all the news reports out of Iraq, that things are out of control in Iraq (search).

Joe Klein in Time magazine going so far as to ask, "Who is losing Iraq?"

I don't know, Joe. But I know this much: We aren't.

I mean, is it me, or are we so focused on the bad news there, that we're missing the good news there? I think we are.

I think it's right to report on U.S. soldiers dying. But it's even more right to point out what they're dying for. A liberated Iraq. A freer Iraq. A better Iraq.

I think it's right to report problems. But I think it's wrong to not report triumphs. Electricity returning to cities that never had it. Commerce opening in towns that never knew it. People for the first time in their lives freely expressing their religious views when the government just before had executed them for it. And oil slowly coming back on line when most had dismissed it.

People are learning what freedom's about now. I'd sooner see mass protests than mass graves. I see less of one and none of the other now. I see shops opening and business clamoring to make Baghdad home. Their home -- rocky in some places -- far more peaceful than ever in most places. Our soldiers have died for that, and their families can take great solace in knowing that.

Peace always comes at a price. Some World War II veterans recently reminded me of that. One, who was in charge of rebuilding Germany recounted how many of his buddies were killed long after the war.

Americans didn't question the value of what we were doing then. We shouldn't grow impatient with what we're doing now. I guess it's far easier to write damning stories about all that's going wrong, than for one solitary moment, to consider all that is going right.

I didn't say that. The greatest generation taught me that. And their children and grandchildren fighting in Iraq show me that.

I'm not fit to judge them, but I am fit to thank them. And let them know their work is good, their progress is real and their mission is right.

Watch Neil Cavuto's Common Sense weekdays at 4 p.m. ET on Your World with Cavuto.