from the story:

Of all the "surge" options out there, short ones are the most dangerous. Increasing troop levels in Baghdad for three or six months would virtually ensure defeat. It takes that long for newly arrived soldiers to begin to understand the areas where they operate. Short surges would redeploy them just as they began to be effective.

In addition, a short surge would play into the enemy's hands. Both Sunni insurgents and Shiite militias expect the U.S. presence to fade away over the course of 2007, and they expect any surge to be brief. They will naturally go to ground in the face of a short surge and wait until we have left. They will then attack the civilian population and whatever Iraqi security forces remain,

Honestly, i do not know anymore what has been achieved since any version of this re-escalation, or, to use Condi's word, augmentation, was proposed and put into action.

There are only a few things I know:

(1) I'd believe Lara Logan's view of success/failure morseo than any other journalist, including Michael Ware. (As great as he is, when I saw him on the live interview with Bill Maher last week, he seemed to be desperate to make jokes... who knows, maybe he has gone batshit crazy covering this war for CNN). And seems that her report 6-9 months ago indicated that in some areas this "augmentation" was producing some good results. But I'd like to know her report of things today and now.

(2) McCain has gone several times, heavily armored and wall to wall military protection, to create a Fantasy Island view of the wonderful secure open markets in Bagdhad.

(3) By having no written metrics, Bush could play his  "let's wait til September" game endlessly, and debunk all quantifiable measurements of progress -- as being not the full purpose of the surge.

(4) And I know that Angelina Jolie went over there and made headlines by stating to intl press that "the surge is working". I have no idea what that was all about, why she went there, and what was her impetus to make this a press event. Yes, I presumed her liberal... but god only knows what she is. But if she considers herself highminded, fair, and not subject to being propogandized, then I don't know what to think of her publicly stated report from being them.

That's all I really know: those 4 things.