I read this article interviewing a bunch of troops about their opinions on the success of the surge and it was fairly eye-opening in the sense that their assessment was rather similar to my own. Basically, a lot of people keep touting the surge as a transformational success in that it has significantly lessened the violence in Iraq and made 'victory' possible. My own thoughts have been and were at the time the surge was proposed that at best it would provide nothing more than a temporary lull in the absurd violence which was consuming the country and at best allow an opportunity for political reconciliation to occur. I think it did about as much as could possibly be expected. I think it also definitively debunked the Rumsfield doctrine of a lighter, swifter force being all that was necessary for this undertaking and thoroughly vindicated Gen. Shinseki and his estimate of required troop strength to do the job right.

Either way, I find it telling that when asked their opinions about it some of the same troops who are being touted as having saved our possible 'victory' (in quotes because we have no widely agreed upon definition of what victory means currently and whatever that definition is it will be different than what it was defined as being when this conflict started) have many of the same misgivings about the transient nature of their success. The basic point being that we've bought time which appears to have been wasted since the real difficult political decisions are still being punted down the road by the Iraqi political leadership. Until basic things like the nature of the government and the relative power of the Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish groups are settled the possibility of and potential for wide-scale sectarian violence is very much still there. By this I don't mean another document without weigh but a real political agreement and understanding by all the parties that truly encompasses what their split of the power and economic pie is going to be without one feeling they can still get a better cut through violence.

Just something to think about the next time you hear some politico spouting off about how the surge has worked and 'victory' in Iraq is right about the corner. Just think about how many times we've 'turned a corner' in Iraq over the last five years and ask yourself why we're still on the same street...

Meanwhile, in Afghanistan things are going from bad to much worse very quickly...