BBC's Mona Mahmoud has done her own evaluation of the surge, which I haven't seen mentioned anywhere else yet.
She's monitored the number of dead and wounded (often ignored by other sources) broken down between civilians, iraqi military, iraqi police and "coalition" military. She has also monitored the access to electricity for three families in Baghdad, fuel prices and the pressure on hospitals.
I don't have time or energy to do any in-depth analysis on her findings myself, I recommend you instead follow the link and read them yourselves.
She's made a report almost every week, and each can be reached with the following links:
Surge Report 5 September
Surge report 22 August
Surge report 15 August
Surge report 1 August
Surge report 25 July
Surge report 18 July
Surge report 11 July
Surge report 4 July
The following picture is the most telling, a graph of the dead and wounded every week since mid-June:
As can be seen, there is no tendency in the last two months suggesting a decrease in violence and death. In fact, the latter half of August showed more of an increase than anything else.
The most telling are the reports from the two hospitals that have been part of this investigation. I've quoted some of them below:
Al-Yarmouk received 10 limbs with the rest of the bodies missing, 22 victims who had been beheaded, 45 people killed by one car bomb alone in the al-Baaya district and the bodies of 13 people who had been shot in the head.
Al-Yarmouk reported eight beheaded bodies, all from one family, and another five from another.
Of the 38 people who had suffered violent deaths arriving at the hospital this week, 21 could not be identified. Some had been shot in the head; others hanged.
At al-Kindi, 23 victims killed in violence were reported - one more than the previous week.
At both hospitals, the numbers wounded in violent incidents were considerably down.
Al-Yarmouk reported 46 bodies were brought in, all beheaded. The victims included men, women and children - eight from one family. Other victims included four members of staff from the electricity ministry and 15 from the police force.
At al-Kindi, 15 victims killed in violence were reported - eight less than the previous week. At both hospitals, the numbers wounded in violent incidents rose on last week's total.
...
Baghdad's forensic department reported that between 1 July and 16 July it had received an additional 270 bodies that had not been claimed by relatives.
...
Al-Yarmouk also received 30 unidentified bodies.
The hospital, itself in a district plagued by violence, has started to suffer a shortage of doctors. Some are reported to have moved to Kurdistan after receiving threats, while others have quit their jobs in fear of killings and kidnappings.
The medical city morgue received 50 unidentified bodies from different neighbourhoods in Baghdad.
Doctors at the al-Kindi hospital held a one day protest over the lack of security and electricity shortages at the hospital.
One doctor was beaten and threatened by the relatives of a female patient after they were unable to save her life due to the shortages of medical staff.
The number of police protecting the hospital has fallen, from 12 to five officers.
Eleven consultants were on duty this week, with six doctors working in the emergency unit.
At the al-Yarmouk hospital casualties ranged from people killed in a US strike in Shuala, to six people shot in the head, as well as 29 unidentified bodies, including three women and two children.
An improvised explosive device was found in the car of the hospital's director general, but was defused.
Al-Kindi hospital - one of the two being monitored in the survey - has increased its protection force to 110 guards in an attempt to protect its doctors.
All Baghdad hospitals have been warned of a possible cholera outbreak following a case in northern Iraq.
Few, if any, of the indicators she's chosen show any improvement at all. Families are lucky to get a few irregular hours of electricity, if at all. Fuel is increasingly expensive and black markets flourish. Hospitals are pressured to the brink. People are killed and maimed by the hundreds every week.
Something is clearly not helping.