The Iraq insurgents' surge

April 27, 2007
The Iraq insurgents' surge

The build-up of United States forces in Iraq as part of the "surge" is now past its halfway point, with three of the five additional combat brigades deployed, principally in Baghdad. The policy is evidently facing severe setbacks - including the attack on the Iraqi parliament and on one of the main bridges over the Tigris in Baghdad, and numerous bombings and murders. The relentless insurgent assault continues against both US forces (eighty-seven of whom have been killed in the first twenty-five days of April 2007) and their Iraqi allies (nine of whom lost their lives in a suicide-bomb attack at an army checkpoint in Khalis, Diyala province, on 26 April).

At the same time, the supporters of the new policy remain active in insisting that it is working or can be made to work. The neo-conservative house journal, the Weekly Standard, carries three positive articles in its current issue (see, for example, Reuel Marc Gerecht, "On Democracy in Iraq", 30 April 2007); its regular authors such as Frederick Kagan are advocating the same broad message elsewhere (see, for example, "Turning the Corner in Iraq," Guardian, 24 April 2007).