A Quick But Expected Failure

One of the reasons that public support has coalesced around Democratic efforts to limit the surge may be that the public is paying attention to the bad news coming out of Iraq. According to Juan Cole writing in Salon, the surge may already be failing because of an aggressive series of attacks on Shiite pilgrims, big suicide bombings, and helicopter downings launched by Sunni insurgents. Insurgents respect the American military enough to avoid getting stuck on the flypaper of large-scale confrontations, but the days of "shock and awe" are long gone.