Now this is the kind of news I like on a Monday morning: the number of soldiers killed in Iraq in September plunged to the lowest level in 14 months. Perhaps even more impressive is that the death toll has dropped four straight months.

So, not only is the surge putting Al Qaeda on the ropes, it is reducing our own fatalities.

"The trend is certainly in the right direction," US military spokesman Rear Admiral Mark Fox told a press conference in Baghdad.

"The surge unquestionably is what has been the catalyst that has created the opportunity to have more forces operating in more places at the same time and to deny Al-Qaeda and the extremists safe-haven and to take away sanctuaries."

Great news.