A steady number of casualties

Matt reminds us of long-term violence trends in Iraq and that the violence there has been unacceptably high since almost right after the invasion:

I would remind readers that the summer of 2006 was worse than the summer of 2005 which, in turn, was worse than the summer of 2004. Meanwhile, at the time the summer of 2004 was conventionally considered to be [a] very bad situation. We've managed to fail to [so] badly that less-intense forms of failure now look like progress if you squint hard enough.

Right. It's pretty evident now that the administration's goal isn't to get street violence in Iraq down to the levels enjoyed by other countries in the region, let alone to the levels enjoyed by the sorts of liberal democracies Iraq is supposed to be. Instead, the goal is to hope that an indefinite surge can restrain the violence to such a degree that monthly casualties asymptotically approach some high number--and that number will become the de facto benchmark for military success in the country.