Chalres Krauthammer of the Washington Post discusses critics ignoring the successes in Iraq, and arguing that benchmarks previously set for the Iraqi government are not as important as the real-world successes that are being seen in many facets of Iraq today.

Al-Qaeda in Iraq is in disarray, the Sunni insurgency in decline, the Shiite militias quiescent, the capital city reviving. Are we now to reverse course and abandon all this because parliament cannot ratify the reconciliation already occurring on the ground?

In The New York Times, Nazila Fathi reports that even hard-line newspapers, traditionally loyal to Ahmadinejad's government, are beginning to criticize his harsh tactics when dealing with friends and foes alike.  Ahmadinejad recently accused a top nuclear negotiator of being a spy because the former ally had called into question the wisdom of Iran's advancing nuclear program.

“Lately, defaming political rivals has become common in the country and has replaced lawful behavior,” the newspaper wrote in a front-page editorial on Wednesday. “We want to reject this kind of behavior as immoral, illegal, illogical and un-Islamic, and remind wise figures that such a trend is dangerous for the country,” it added.

And C.J. Chivers of The New York Times visits Afghanistan, and celebrates Thanksgiving with a multi-national group of soldiers stationed at Forward Operating Base Airborne.