The issue critical to assessing "The Success of the Surge" is an understanding of the word "Success". A surge succeeds or fails at two levels: tactical and strategic.

At the level of the soldier in the field (i.e. tactically), the surge has been successful to some degree, and this is a credit to the soldiers' valience. At the level of the President (i.e. strategically), it has been a complete failure, and this is a repudiation of the President's policy.

The strategy of applying a surge tactic was to create the battlefield conditions needed to permit political progress by the Iraqi government. The soldiers succeeded in creating the appropriate battlefield conditions, but the Iraqi government failed to make political progress. Thus, the strategy failed.

So, let's be more clear about what succeeded and what failed:
The soldiers succeeded. The President failed.

Let's see how Kurt handles a little close reading.

:-)