The Troop Surge in Iraq Can Only Be Termed an Unmitigated Disaster

"...daily life will improve, Iraqis will gain confidence in their leaders, and the government will have the breathing space it needs to make progress in other critical areas. Most of Iraq's Sunni and Shia want to live together in peace -- and reducing the violence in Baghdad will help make reconciliation possible."

Lest you have forgotten George W. Bush's words from a year ago when he announced his vaunted "troop surge" the real mission of this undertaking was not to achieve specific military successes, but rather for those military successes to lead to substantial political successes that would lead to conditions that made the deployment of troops and money from Iraq possible. If you tune into the American mainstream media and the GOP debates, you may currently be laboring under the impression that the troop surge has been successful. It has not been. In fact, judging strictly by the standards outlined by the President himself the troop surge can be judged as nothing less than an unmitigated disaster.

To begin with: the promise that daily life in Iraq would improve. Only if you go by the low standards that this debacle has reached-remember those arrogant promises of bringing democracy to Iraq and Iraqis dancing in the streets as they welcomed American intervention? The current standards of success in Iraq are based on such dubious distinctions as not as many thousands of Iraqis dying, not as many hundreds of bombs going off every day, and not as many dozens of Americans dying every week. Before America liberated Iraq the country was one of the most prosperous in the region. The standards by which daily live has improved under the surge has been reduced to providing ten hours of electricity a day instead of six. Report card: D.