The sounds of silence?

Item 1:  A member of the FreeRepublic site, posting from Baghdad, notes that “Come to think of it, I haven’t heard any explosions in the last couple of days…[*1] ”

Item 2:  Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit passes along an e-mail[*2] from Michael Yon[*3] who is also “in-country”:  “Wow. There was zero combat reported in Baqubah yesterday. Hard to believe. But I am right here, and that’s the way it was.”

The contrast with the increasingly shrill political environment here Stateside is offered for your evening’s meditation.