Surge Continues to Work!

According to the Belmont Club, the number of US deaths in Iraq totalled 21 in December, the lowest number since US involvement in March '03. The three month total is also at a low of 93.

This is great news and I hope we continue to see improvement even if the media is largely ignoring it.

I also recently noticed the top democrats like Clinton, Edwards, and Obama all making promises to bring the troops home now that the surge has worked (even though democrats were against the surge from the beginning). Even some republicans have begun to discuss the notion of bringing some troops home because the surge is working. This seems a little crazy to me.

Why? Well if something is working - why not continue it? Or even improve it? If 30,000 extra US troops have made such a substantial change in Iraq, maybe the result could be improved with another 10,000 or 20,000. Who knows?

I trust Petraeus 100% in whatever his assessment is of the situation. I just hope that US politicians can resist the temptation to put pressure on him because 2008 is an election year. After all, we all remember what happened to that incredible analysis put forth by the Iraq Study Group.