Ooh-ooh-ooooh!

USA Today asks “Why can’t Obama admit the obvious? The surge worked” and I, raising my hand and grunting in the style of Arnold Horshack, insist on being called on to answer. Has “the surge” worked? Well, U. S. and Iraqi military casualties are way down from a year ago, Iraqi civilian casualties are way down, and the Iraqi parliament is making some progress on the political issues that the Iraqis need to resolve (which is more than you can say for our own Congress). I don’t believe that those results, which nearly anybody would agree are good things, are solely the consequences of “the surge”. I think “the surge” was only one of several factors that brought casualties down and created a space in which a new Iraqi polity could begin to take shape and may have not been the most important factor. I just don’t know. Let’s take a... [read full story]