Was Bush's surge in Iraq a success?

[noamnety]

I have seen a few posts today referencing how the Afghanistan escalation is being modeled on the "successful" surge in Iraq.

I'm confused.

[BrklynLiberal]

1. That is a question for which the answer depends ENTIRELY on who you ask...

I do not think there is a totally objective answer.

I agree with Benjamin Franklin... "There is no such thing as a good war, or a bad peace."

[spanone]

2. what have we won in iraq?

[noamnety]

3. I don't know.

I thought we had the surge, everyone on DU opposed it, we all recognized it as a failure.

Now I'm reading that it was a success, and the reason we were able to withdraw troops from Iraq.

If we're crediting Bush with winning that, I missed the memo.

[spanone]

6. not me, i credit george* with totally fucking up the middle east...surge and all

[shraby]

10. If enough palms are greased with enough money, most

anything can be successful. Buying of the factions was a great help in bringing cooperation from the Iraqis.

[timeforpeace]

4. It's simple. Would you have called it successful if Obama had been the president then?

[noamnety]

7. Me? No.

I would have called it a surge of colonialism and militarism.

But it seems it's retroactively being declared a success now, since Obama's using the same strategy in Afghanistan.

[Birthmark]

5. No, not if you look at what it was supposed to accomplish

I suppose you can give it a partial success, but even that is optimistic and non-comprehensive, imo.

[librechik]

8. If by surge you mean, hey you guys cover us while we leave

I sure hope so. Cuz it just might work in Iraq. If that is what we are doing with the "surge" in Iraq.

It's all a bit foggy isn't it? By design, I think.

[Arctic Dave]

9. If it was then why aren't we employing it in Afghanistan?

Surge Strategy:
Hey guys, here is a bunch of money, go kill those guys over there and stop killing us so we can "claim victory and get the hell out of here".

War over.