Heritage Asks: Is the Surge Working?

Is Gen. David Petraeus’ surge strategy working? Despite negativity in the media, new figures show that violence has recently declined in Iraq.

“With about 160,000 combat troops,” writes Heritage national security expert James Carafano, “Gen. Petraeus managed to stem the rising tide of violence in Iraq. That is a statistic worth noting because, according to the ‘experts,’ it couldn't be done.”

Even the liberal-leaning Washington Post recognizes the progress. Citing the reduced violence, they wrote over the weekend that “it’s looking more and more as though those in and outside of Congress who last month were assailing Gen. Petraeus’s credibility and insisting that there was no letup in Iraq's bloodshed were -- to put it simply -- wrong.”

Read the Heritage article.