How well is the Surge working?

Question

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070812/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq

Answer 1

It's not, by any objective standard.

It has not met any of its established goals or objectives.

Answer 2

Despite the fact that you and a lot of other Americans are hoping for complete failure, most of the reports show that the improvements are being made. I know Americans are impatient and want immediate gratification, however that doesn't occur in any war. It didn't occur immediately after the American revolution either. Of course there are going to be setbacks.

Answer 3

Not as well as we hoped. We need to re-surge and extend the tours of duty to continue the limited amount of progress. Now would be a good time for patriotic Bush supporters to enlist. Higher rates of US casualties, more EFP attacks, and higher levels of sectarian violence and civilian deaths show the hard work is being worked on hard. We must sacrifice much more.

Answer 4

Ask ******** Durbin. He just returned and said its great.

Also two lieberals Michael O'Hanlon and Kenneth Pollack from the NY Times hated to admit it but had to say the Surge is working.

Here is the most important thing Americans need to understand: We are finally getting somewhere in Iraq, at least in military terms. As two analysts who have harshly criticized the Bush administration’s miserable handling of Iraq, we were surprised by the gains we saw and the potential to produce not necessarily “victory” but a sustainable stability that both we and the Iraqis could live with.

After the furnace-like heat, the first thing you notice when you land in Baghdad is the morale of our troops. In previous trips to Iraq we often found American troops angry and frustrated — many sensed they had the wrong strategy, were using the wrong tactics and were risking their lives in pursuit of an approach that could not work.

Today, morale is high. The soldiers and marines told us they feel that they now have a superb commander in Gen. David Petraeus; they are confident in his strategy, they see real results, and they feel now they have the numbers needed to make a real difference.

Everywhere, Army and Marine units were focused on securing the Iraqi population, working with Iraqi security units, creating new political and economic arrangements at the local level and providing basic services — electricity, fuel, clean water and sanitation — to the people. Yet in each place, operations had been appropriately tailored to the specific needs of the community. As a result, civilian fatality rates are down roughly a third since the surge began — though they remain very high, underscoring how much more still needs to be done.

In Ramadi, for example, we talked with an outstanding Marine captain whose company was living in harmony in a complex with a (largely Sunni) Iraqi police company and a (largely Shiite) Iraqi Army unit. He and his men had built an Arab-style living room, where he met with the local Sunni sheiks — all formerly allies of Al Qaeda and other jihadist groups — who were now competing to secure his friendship.

In Baghdad’s Ghazaliya neighborhood, which has seen some of the worst sectarian combat, we walked a street slowly coming back to life with stores and shoppers. The Sunni residents were unhappy with the nearby police checkpoint, where Shiite officers reportedly abused them, but they seemed genuinely happy with the American soldiers and a mostly Kurdish Iraqi Army company patrolling the street. The local Sunni militia even had agreed to confine itself to its compound once the Americans and Iraqi units arrived.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/30/opinion/30pollack.html?_r=1&oref=slogin






Lieberals hope for defeat must be crushed.

Answer 5

It's a failure.

When will we learn to refuse orders from the armchair commandos at PNAC and the American Enterprise Institute?

Answer 6

Do you even know what the surge is?

Answer 7

Not at all well but what do you expect with George Bush at the helm?

Answer 8

according to the men on the ground, very well!!