So....IS the surge working?

Or have they started some sort of bookkeeping program that they've conveniently forgotton to tell the press about?

Or has the violence popped up elsewhere?

IS the surge working or not?

The surge was a means to an end. We are reportedly no closer to the end.


We would not say a heart transplant was successful, no matter how well it was performed, if the patient died.

And it worsens with time.

The surge is not a strategy, it is still an escalation, and is not *working*.

Wasn't it Mao who said, "There is confusion, the situation is excellent."

It just has to be manageable terror ... you know, our specialty.

that ruthless. And please, there's no partisan politics here ... just sober American history.

And someone told me, that look at the real history of the US. What we did to Native Americans, what we did to Japanese citizens in WWII, native Hawaiians. How long it took us to get to civil rights and the continual struggle to maintain what we have gained.

She/He said that Bush was the most American president of them all.

I think I agree. But he isn't smart.

"Surge" my ass. Back in the day, we called it what it was - escalation. It failed to bring about a political solution then, and it will fail to do so now.

You can't keep sending soldiers through tour after tour without massive and negative repercussions for their mental health and their future. After a while, they will not re-enlist, and you will suffer a prolonged period of brain-drain.

I think something is going on in Iraq below the radar and it is not good. One of the other threads involves al Sadr laying low and I think that plays a large part in it and I think before long Iraq is going to explode again.

Something is going on over there and it seems a lot of people are "missing" what it is.

Yes, violence is down, but only to the levels of early 2006--that is to say, merely horrendous violence as opposed to something that would loosen the bowels of Torquemada. And there's been no progress on any other front, so sooner or later it's going to heat back up again.

No political progress has been made, however, and there are a number of other factors contributing to the increase in peace. None of the problems in Iraq have been solved; the problems underlying and causing the violence are just as there and just as real.

one testicle, one ovary, and its face is one big scar. However, thanks to the multi-billion-dollar surge, America's headache has subsided somewhat. Psychoactive drugs have been administered to the people who hired Dr. Bush. On Cloud 9, no one has to feel any guilt, earned or not.

America will still need years of physical, psychological, and pharmacological treatments to recover some of what she had before Dr. Bush began his treatments. America may walk again, maybe even tall. A lot depends on the patient's will to heal and live.

Dr. Bush has kindly volunteered to postpone delivering the bill until another doctor has taken over. Interest applies.