TVNewser today posts a pair of videos of Geraldo Rivera reporting from Iraq for Fox News, and, what can we say? We're impressed. Rivera manages to not give away troop positions or strategy to the enemy. On a couple occasions in this first video, he edges very closely to doing so, but manages to check himself. I'm guessing there's an off camera Taser or something, keeping him in check.

Anyway, the mood is light and it's a relief to see our servicemen in good spirits, at ease, and having an opportunity, thanks to the Internet, to communicate with loved ones back at home. Pretty soon, you're greeted with the sight of a white board, which chronicles this particular unit's sacrifices and accomplishments. It's pretty revealing, to see the metrics by which our soldiers on the ground measure themselves, but just as it's getting interesting, Rivera pulls away to take stock in something more interesting to him: namely, a mural that may or may not depict him. Uhm...great. These are the metrics by which Rivera measures himself. Not to be a damp rag, but the only person with more recorded look-alikes in the region was Saddam Hussein.

Then there is this second video, and frankly, it says everything about the surge that you need to know. Documenting the rollback of violence in a small neighborhood where the Iraqi security forces have taken command, it purports to be a notable success story in the whole "standing up versus standing down" department. Yet, you might notice that at the top of the report, there is mention of the "minority Shiites" from the neighborhood. But in this tale of "success," those "minority Shiites" are never mentioned again. One wonders if a similar "disappearance" of these "minority Shiites" on the streets of their old neighborhood were the key factor in this "success."

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