News The Media Won't Be PushingUS deaths in Iraq were the lowest
since the war began, and oil production there set a new record as well.
The U.S. military said 19 soldiers died in May, the lowest monthly death toll in a five-year-old war that has so far claimed the lives of more than 4,000 American soldiers.
Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani told Reuters in an interview that the improved security had helped Iraq, which has the world's third-largest oil reserves, raise oil production to a post-war high of 2.5 million barrels per day in May.
We could have "hope". Or we could have the reality that the surge has worked.