Led by the New York Times – aptly nicknamed The Treason Times by Ann Coulter because it has become a champion for the deposed Baathist Party, assorted terrorists, and other dissident groups in Iraq – liberal media continues its biased reporting of our struggle there.

Perhaps I should say “biased non-reporting.” Back when we were getting news directly from reporters embedded with coalition troops, optimistic reports were common. But since that procedure ended, the mainstream American media seem unable to find anything good to report.

At least in the case of the Times, that’s understandable. It’s had its hands full ferreting out the likes of Jayson Blair, a black staff reporter discovered making up facts, plagiarizing articles from a San Antonio newspaper, and fabricating nonexistent interviews and trips. When that story broke, the Times Board, according to Ms. Coulter, “has been in a quandary because, adhering to its high ethical standards, Blair should either have been fired immediately for misconduct, or given his own regular column in its op-ed pages.”

Anyway, here are just a few news items which our harried – don’t challenge their patriotism – public servants in the liberal press seem to have overlooked. I bet you didn’t know:

That 50 countries have re-established their embassies in Iraq.

That the Iraqi government currently employs over 1.2 million Iraqi people.

That 3,100 schools have been completely renovated, 364 schools are under rehab, 263 new schools are under construction, and construction has been completed on 38 new schools.

That Iraq’s higher education system now consists of 20 universities, 46 institutes or colleges, and 4 research centers, all currently operating.

And that in January 2005, 2006 and 2007, groups of 25 Iraqi students headed for the U.S. under the revamped Fulbright Scholarship Program.

The Iraqi navy is now in business, with 5 100-foot patrol craft, 34 smaller vessels, and a naval infantry regiment. Since there’s not much water in that country, a larger force is probably not needed.

Iraq’s Air Force consists of three operational squadrons, which includes 9 reconnaissance and 3 C-130 transport aircraft under Iraqi control, active day and night. It also has at least 16 UH-1 helicopters and 4 Bell Jet Rangers.

Iraq now boasts a counter-terrorist strike force and at least one Commando battalion to tackle specific problems caused by insurgencies.

The Iraqi Police Service has approximately 120,000 fully trained and equipped police officers and Iraq has 5 police academies, which produce over 3,500 new officers every 8 weeks.

As of the end of 2005, the Iraqi government commanded an army of 250,000 trained and equipped Iraqi soldiers.

More than 1,100 building projects are going on in Iraq. They include 364 schools, 67 public clinics, 15 hospitals, 83 railroad stations, 22 oil facilities, and 69 electrical facilities. The oil and electrical facilities will, when operational, contribute much to the Iraqi economy.

And I bet you didn’t know that, as of the end of 2005, 96% of Iraqi children under the age of 5 had received the first two series of polio vaccinations, while 4.3 million children were enrolled in primary schools.

And did you know that there are over 1.25 million cell phone subscribers in Iraq, and that since Saddam was overthrown, phone use has risen 158%?

How about this? The Baghdad Stock Exchange opened for business in June 2004. Yes, people in Iraq invest in stocks, just as do people here.

What about the fact that at least two major candidates in the Iraqi presidential election held in January 2005 had a televised debate? Or these facts: an independent Iraqi electoral commission, working with U.S. and U.N. personnel, funded voter registration and information programs, set up 30,000 polling places, organized 130,000 election workers, and held a general election for a nation of 27 million people.

Did you know that Iraq’s independent media consists of 75 radio stations, 180 newspapers, and 10 television stations? No, Al Jazeera is not the only TV outlet in that nation, although it is the only one to have been temporarily banned there, in Iran, and Saudi Arabia, for inflammatory broadcasting.

Now admit it. You’ve never seen more than one or two of these positive developments in the American press. Instead, we are fed a steady diet of suicide bombings, flag burning incidents, casualty counts, blustering quotes from Al Quada operatives about what they’re going to do to us, and wounded troops stepping off airplanes, being greeted by sobbing relatives who don’t seem to understand that in war, soldiers get hurt and even killed.

This plays right into the liberal’s hands, because their view of how to conduct a war seems to be that as soon as our troops get shot at we need to pull back and bring in a blue-helmeted international peacekeeping force.

All of this is intended to undermine the world’s perception of the United States, thus minimizing support for the war on terror. It’s also aimed at discouraging American citizens by convincing them that the cost of fighting any war is just too high, and that this war is one we cannot win.

If we adopt that attitude, it would place us squarely in line with the socialist countries of Europe, who believe they can solve any dispute by talking their enemies to death. It’s also a repeat of the tactic used during the Vietnam War, another fight the media did not support because it threatened to stop the domino-like advance of international Communism.

Not since WWII has the media agreed that the United States should fight a war to win, and even then, some news outlets expressed doubts that we were worthy of victory.

If he’s still alive, Osama bin Laden is probably laughing up his sleeve, knowing that if he hangs on long enough he has a good shot at waiting us out. In this, the liberal American press is his greatest ally.