The Young Turks

"I was last in Baghdad 10 months ago and I sense that, as a result of the progress that has been made since then, phenomenal changes in terms of the overall situation,"

You mean, like, exclusion of the Sunnis? Hmmm...think the "overall situation" is likely to change when the full brunt of the Mahdi army ceasefire ending comes into play? Aew you completely unaware of Turkish and Iranian strikes in your model of stability, the Kurdish area? How about the "phenominal changes" that will occur when the 80,000 Sahwa use the weapons we provide against us or the Malaki government? Do ya think the American public would get a mite upset if our press did it's job and reported that many Sahwa members are Al Qaeda and that your demented policy is arming and paying $300 a week to the very people you say we're trying to get rid of?

While you and McCain had to make secret, unannounced trips to Iraq and can barely move within a couple of square miles of the most secure area to give your speeches about how wonderful things are, why not make an unscheduled visit to Anbar. Take a taxi, not a division of troops. It'll give you an up close look at the "remarkable turnaround" in security. Hell, go all the way to the Syrian border and tell those 4 million displaced Iraqis,  "Everythin g's better now, c'mon home - just ignore the humanitarian crisis!"

Oh, and that surge thing working and all? Not so much. At least, the Iraqi people don't credit the U.S. for any improvement they might be seeing. ("53 percent  felt that the rapid buildup of U.S. troops in Anbar province and in Baghdad has made overall security worse, not better")

Buh-bye now, Dick. Off you go to your friends in Israel to see if you can do for the Palestinian territories what you did for Iraq...might as well stir up some anti-Iran sentiment while you're at it - maybe you can talk about the unfairness of their elections...