The Surge and the Prospect of Its Success

Good summary from Larry Auster:

Even Rep. John Murtha, the congressional Democrats' most emotional opponent of the Bush policy, is admitting that the surge is "working." That certainly represents a shift in the reflexively negative thinking of the Democratic party. Since the surge began, I've always conceded the point, which I think is pretty obvious, that if our troop levels were increased, and if, as under Gen. Creighton Abrams in Vietnam, our troops remained in areas they had secured, instead of entering an area, killing the enemy, and then leaving, then the violence in those areas would decline and civilian life could resume. That was not the point. The point was: what would prevent the enemy from fading away temporarily, then returning when the surge came to an end? ...

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