Step 1: Surge. Step 2: ?? Step 3: Pullout!

"Emerging from the deadliest year yet in Iraq: a grab at political progress. After all, the point of the surge was a military strategy to overflow the country with soldiers to create breathing room for diplomatic and political solutions. That seems difficult with the Iraqi government on another month break (I imagine something like a Crawford ranch, with just a little bit more shooting into the air).

Some liken the surge to the recent decrease in violence toward both coalition forces and Iraqi civilians. Something a bit interesting is the six month ceasefire from Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr at the end of August, coming straight from the deadliest summer since the invasion. Suddenly, the flow of EFPs, the rarest of roadside bombs but also the most deadly, began to decline after Sadr's Mahdi army laid down their arms. Sectarian issues began to cool in Baghdad. What do you know? The ceasefire is set to end next month. With the hole the ceasefire and surge created in the tangled web of Iraqi politics, they probably should have landed on the moon by now. Sadly, the amount of electricity in Baghdad per day is lower than it was before Saddam, and the electricity minister hopes to have it at about Saddam-era levels in 2011. Next week marks the one year announcement of the infamous benchmarks for the Iraqi government to reach by last November. Whatever happened to those?"
Army of Dude