Surge to nowhere

Andrew Bacevitch makes the case (again) that the surge hasn't succeeded because strategies that don't meet their objectives are failures by definition. Part of the problem, of course, is that the stated objectives of the surge were different than the political objectives of the surge--specifically, to deepen the military investment and make fraught any talk of ending the war--and judged against those objectives, the surge has been a tremendous success. Unfortunately, a victory on those terms is of little use to Iraqis or American citizens or Americans soldiers or anyone, really, who happens not to be personally or professionally invested in a continuing U.S. presence in Iraq.

Three such people make the opposite case here.