The initial stated aim of the surge was "“America will change our strategy to help the Iraqis carry out their campaign to put down sectarian violence and bring security to the people of Baghdad."

Then on January 23, 2007, Bush stated:

In order to make progress toward this goal, the Iraqi government must stop the sectarian violence in its capital. But the Iraqis are not yet ready to do this on their own. So we're deploying reinforcements of more than 20,000 additional soldiers and Marines to Iraq. The vast majority will go to Baghdad, where they will help Iraqi forces to clear and secure neighborhoods, and serve as advisers embedded in Iraqi Army units. With Iraqis in the lead, our forces will help secure the city by chasing down the terrorists, insurgents, and the roaming death squads. And in Anbar Province, where al Qaeda terrorists have gathered and local forces have begun showing a willingness to fight them, we're sending an additional 4,000 United States Marines, with orders to find the terrorists and clear them out. We didn't drive al Qaeda out of their safe haven in Afghanistan only to let them set up a new safe haven in a free Iraq.

to provide the Iraqi government the breathing space they needed to achieve the benchmarks laid out for them.

As of July 12, 2007, the progress on the benchmarks was as follows:

Satisfactory results

1. Form a committee to review the constitution
2. Establish a process to form and implement semi-autonomous regions
3. Establish political, media, economic and service committees to support security plan
4. Provide three trained and ready Iraqi brigades to support operations in Baghdad
5. Protect the rights of minority political parties in the Iraqi legislature
6. Allocate and spend $10 billion in Iraqi revenues for reconstruction projects
7. Ensure that the Baghdad security plan will not provide safe haven for outlaws, regardless of sectarian or political affiliation
8. Establish joint security stations in neighborhoods across Baghdad

Mixed results

1. Establish an electoral commission, set up provincial councils and their authorities, and set a date for elections -
2. Reduce the level of sectarian violence in Iraq and eliminate militia control of local security

Unsatisfactory results

1. Divide oil revenues among Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish factions
2. Reintegrate former Baath Party members into Iraq society; exclude democracy opponents
3. Give Iraqi commanders authority to execute the security plan and make tactical and operational decisions
4. Ensure that Iraqi security forces provide even-handed law enforcement.
5. Increase the number of Iraqi security force units capable of operating independently
6. Ensure that Iraq's political authorities are not undermining or making false accusations against members of the Iraqi security forces

Too early to assess

1. Pass law giving amnesty to former members of the ruling Baath Party
2. Enact and implement law on militia disarmament so security forces are loyal and accountable

These benchmarks are what will ultimately be the mechanism to "stop sectarian violence." I must note that even those benchmarks that received a "satisfactory" grade all had qualifications about how complete they were and that they had to have continued results.

I would argue that there hasn't been much progress in the past year and that some of the items in the "satisfactory" column have not been sustained.

McCain and Bush need to be held to discussing the true aims of the surge and not the reasons for it that have been altered to fit the results. We went through that with the justifications for the Iraq invasion, and that was bad enough.