Bizarrely enough, this article mentions nothing one way or the other regarding whether the surge might have been helpful in reducing violence so dramatically in Baghdad. I recognize that there are certain quarters in which praise of the surge is verboten. But at the very least, we could get some analysis of the issue, no?

Then again, perhaps there was a belief on the part of the writers that any honest analysis would have shown the surge to be a primary cause of the reduction in violence. An inconvenient truth amongst a specific group of people, if you will.