Failure of the Surge

General David Petraeus, the top U.S. general in Iraq recently stated that despite the gains made on the security front by the U.S. and Iraqi military, the government of Iraq has failed to make what he calls "sufficient progress" on the national reconciliation front, meaning the surge strategy has fundamentally failed.

After all, that was the stated goal of the surge. President Bush, when he announced the surge in January 2007, stated that the escalation of troop levels in Iraq was for the purpose of creating breathing space for the warring factions to come together. That has not happened, so says the top U.S. general in Iraq. And with the majority of the surge troops having left or preparing to leave Iraq, while the levels of violence have been steady or increasing since Nov. 2007, so says a GAO study there is little hope the sides will be coming together any time soon.

Beside the failure of the parties to come together, the government has continued to fail its people on the most basic of civic services:electricity, clean drinking water and refuse collection. Without adequately providing these services, I am not convinced this is even a functioning government. And the parliament more often than not fails to have a quorum, so none of the legislative process can move forward.

Furthermore, we have the President out on a speech junket touting the great gains, as he sees them, being made in Iraq. Its a shame this man is a simpleton. He thinks so literally. For example, he thinks all you need to have are elections and a piece of paper entitled "constitution," and voila, you have yourself a full fledged, sovereign democracy. Never mind when asked what sovereignty means to the Iraqis, he answered it means they are "sovereign." Well done.

Now, he sees statistics that show a drop in the monumentally chaotic situation in Iraq, and he see "success." He sees 60% drop in overall violence since the surge started, while I would make the case violence is up overall 40% since the invasion and occupation of the fertile crescent.

Dont believe the hype. The surge fundamentally failed. There has been no national reconciliation.