The Surge

You are invited to impose security. Strategy, slogans, a new direction, we'll take it all. You are now marching toward escalation; please escalate at home to reassure a crime-weary New Orleans.

Republicans are using the Obama-McChrystal episode as an opportunity for fear-mongering. Sen. John McCain said ignoring McChrystal's troop request would be "an error of historic proportions."

Will Obama disappoint the foreign policy elites or will he, like Bush, send a "Drop Dead" message to the American people?

6. I will not miss hearing that trickle down economics is the way to keep America strong despite the fact that it's nearly destroyed us financially during the past eight years

Iraq remains a powder keg. "The Surge" has done little to increase security, a state of civil war remains and regional conflict threatens greater problems for the future.

McCain wants us to talk solely about whether the surge of US troops last year has been successful. But a hole was just blown in that argument -- and blood is rushing through.

Two highly suspect yet seemingly unkillable narratives continue to swirl through the election largely unchallenged: the undeniable success of "The Surge" and McCain's reputation as a proven military leader.

In asserting this week that the surge has "succeeded beyond our wildest dreams," Obama was buying into the Republicans' framing on Iraq. As the Shiite-run Iraqi government is rounding up the Sunni leaders of the Awakening who were at the heart of the reduction in violence, political reconciliation -- the actual goal of the surge -- remains a mirage. McCain's amnesia platform holds that the outcome of the surge is the sum total of the Iraq scorecard -- wiping everything else clean. Forget invading over non-existent WMD, taking our eye off al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan, war profiteering and the empowering of Iran. And forget that Gen. Petraeus wants to delay planned troop cuts because he realizes that widespread violence could easily return to Iraq. Success beyond our wildest dreams? Perhaps when Sarah Palin said, "victory in Iraq is finally in sight," she was talking about a PR victory.

What could Obama have possibly been thinking when he told Bill O'Reilly that the Iraq war surge is not only working but working beyond his wildest dreams?

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon's top military officer said Wednesday that he is likely to recommend further troop reductions in Iraq this fall. Adm....

The jury is still out on the success or failure of the "surge strategy." General Petraeus should bring it to its conclusion before he is rewarded with a promotion.

It's a cold, gray day in December, and I'm walking down Sixtieth Street in the Dora district of Baghdad, one of the most violent and fearsome of the c...

The following is excerpted from a Wall Street Journal article on General David Petraeus's indecision over Iraq troop withdrawals: Defense Secretary R...

New reporting from Baghdad and Washington has called into question the frequently asserted claim that the military surge in Iraq is working. In parti...