The "war" in Iraq is being fought in hundreds of small campaigns. At this point, over 90 percent of the dead are Iraqis. It's really an Iraq war, with American troops taking less and less of a role. Towns and neighborhoods, stretches of road and border areas change hands from day to day. The American military staffs keep track of all this, with greater and greater accuracy. The information doesn't get released to the public, because it would show the enemy how much is known about them. The number of reliable informants within the Sunni Arab community has grown enormously in the past year, and made it easier to get an accurate idea of who has the power, and how they use it, in Sunni Arab areas. The American intelligence troops, the "geeks with guns" have developed whole new ways of measuring combat activity, especially when it involves a lot of terrorism and media operations. All of this won't become widely known until long after the war is over. Right now, those techniques are considered weapons, that would be compromised if their inner workings were public knowledge. But in general, the score card covers dozens of different measures. These range from the familiar accounting of weapons and fighting men, to public opinion and economic activity. Beyond that are more complex measures of who is doing what. This stuff, even if it were made public, would not make for exciting headlines. But it has accurately predicted the progress of the war, even if it has not been reported much at all.
Our military knows we are winning (based on retention). The Iraqi people know we are winning (based on polling). The enemy is losing and increasingly the more sane elements of the Sunni are coming to realize it. I doubt the anti-war side will ever come to this conclusion. The anti-war side will view any flaw as a reason we "failed" just as easily as they saw any glimmer of hope in Saddam's Iraq as a reason to leave him alone.
