The Trend in Iraq

The surge is working. Has the surge rescued the Iraq War? Many war supporters assert we were losing until the surge was implemented.

If so, were these past events failures?

APRIL 2003. We destroyed the conventional armed forces of the Baathist regime and overthrew Saddam.

DECEMBER 2003. We captured Saddam and had ground down the Baathist insurgency. By February 2004, we suffered only 20 troops killed in Iraq.

AUGUST 2004. We put down the second Sadr-led Shia revolt after repulsing the first revolt in the spring alongside the jihadis and their new alliance with the Baathists. This alliance alienated most Shias who began to side fully with us. Our careful battle in August did not drive Shias to Sadr.

NOVEMBER 2004. The Second Battle of Fallujah ended the hopes of the jihadis to conquer Iraq posing as liberators.

The Year 2005. Transitional assembly elections in January, the approval of the costitution referendum in October, and the December parliamentary elections put Iraq on the road to democracy and rejected the idea that a better strongman was the answer to Iraq's problems.

FALL 2006. The Anbar Awakening began, signalling the end of non-Baathist and non-jihadi Sunni resistance.

FALL 2007. The Sunni jihadis were finally broken and the Iranian Shia proxies were knocked back

These were all successes. What some people fail to realize is that despite being successes, they weren't the final victory. But they are no less victories for failing to be the last victory.

The surge has not reversed our defeat in Iraq. The surge has built upon past success and is simply another phase in the long war against a series of enemies and obstacles.

We must still address the problems of criminal gangs, corruption and rule of law, Shia rivalry that could explode in violence, and deter conventional attacks on Iraqi territory.

Have no doubt, we have much more to do. But we've achieved a lot already. That's what the trend tells us.