The Surge is Still Working

Via Juan Cole-

Saturday, September 13, 2008
Bombings at Dujail, Sinjar Kill over 30, wound 85

Two big bombings targeted Shiites on Friday. A bomb killed over 30 persons and wounded over 40 in Dujail, a largely Shiite city northeast of Baghdad. Earlier on Friday, a bomb at the Dhakir al-Din Mosque in Sinjar killed two and wounded 15.

The security situation has deteriorated in Mosul, (pop. 1.8 mn), Iraq's second largest city, which lies in the north of the country. Reuters reports that "U.S. military officials say attacks fell from around 130 per week just before the May offensive to 30 a week in Nineveh by July, before creeping up to 60-70 per week."

When you've got 60 attacks a week in the country's second largest city, things are not "calm."

and ...

In a continuing wave of violence in Iraq, 28 persons were killed and 40 wounded on Saturday. Among the dead were 9 members of the Kurdish Peshmerga paramilitary, killed by a roadside bomb near the disputed city of Khanaqin in Diyala. Arabs and Kurds are increasingly at odds over the future of this city, which Kurds wish to incorporate into the Kurdistan Regional Government.

I guess it really comes down to expectations. If you believe that the surge working meant that violence was over and political reconciliation had begun you were wrong. If you believed that the surge working was about slightly fewer people dying on a daily basis in that country then you were vindicated. Me? I still dont see that the surge worked maybe i will be able to tell in 6 months.