The Surge Worked! We're Winning in Iraq!

As discussed here, the so-called surge has had nothing to do with the lessening of violence in Iraq in recent weeks.

There are 3 main reasons why Iraq has gotten better:
1) much of the inter-sectarian killing and ethnic cleansing has been accomplished
2) the US has bribed the Sunni insurgents to not attack us
3) Muqtada al-Sadr has maintained a cease-fire against the US-- for a variety of reasons not directly related to the surge

There is also the likelihood that a good deal of violence in Iraq was manipulated by the US covertly, and that the powers that be decided to try to make Iraq look good prior to the presidential election, perhaps in part to help the Republicans. (Further, I have little doubt that they can make the violence flare up again, if they so choose.)

In any case, none of this changes the horrendous amount of death and human misery that has occurred in Iraq directly due to the US invasion-- and it doesn't change the fact that the key proponents of the Iraq invasion in the Bush administration are all war-criminals.