Surging to the Brink of Failure

The argument that the Chimperor made for his escalation surge of troops was that by tamping down the violence, that would give the Iraqis time and space to reconcile politically.

The first apparently may be happening. The second is not.

If the Iraqis do not get their shit together and get it together very quickly, then all of those tour extensions, casualties, and stressed and destroyed families of our soldiers and Marines will have been for nothing. And to say that this is "news" is stretching the definition. This has been apparent for several months, that the Iraqis were in no mood to try to knit their country back together.

It's probably not going to happen. The prime minister of Iraq is little more than a tool of the Shiite militias. (Which admittedly is not a criticism an American can make in good faith, since our preznit is a tool.) When the Surge is over and our troop levels are back to pre-Surge levels or smaller, the Iraqis are going to restart their civil/sectarian war.

And of course, the Wingnuts will figure out a way to blame the liberals for that, since they long ago stopped looking in their mirrors.