Is the surge really working?

There's been a Herculean effort on behalf of the Bush Administration and war supporters to tout the supposed 'success' of the surge. People often cite the fact that Iraq is no longer the #1 concern in voters' minds as an effect of this 'success' -- ignoring, of course, both that Iraq is still incredibly important to most people and that the only reason it's no longer #1 is that the economy is falling to shambles around us. That said, this article is a good riposte to that, published by a scholar at Boston U. who, unlike the vast majority of people who pushed the war, actually lost a son in the war.

For contrast, this is an example of the kind of crap circulating about the surge from the pro-war crowd, aptly named 'Mission Accomplished.'