Surge Reduction Fans Political Flames

Intelligence experts and the U.S. military, however, agree that AQI only accounts for about 5% of the violence in Iraq. Yet the president barely mentions sectarian violence or the insurgents in the speech, whereas AQI gets 12 mentions. The public received an incomplete, and thereby incorrect, picture of violence in Iraq.

Political reconciliation has been an utter failure. The Iraqi government and Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki have only achieved one of eight of their legislative priorities. The most important legislation remains an accord on oil revenue. Not only has no agreement been signed, but the Kurds have agreed to oil-and-gas sharing contract with Hunt Oil and Impulse Energy. So the Kurds prefer to make agreements to share oil with a Texas company before bothering to deal with their fellow Iraqis. Not encouraging.

Bush had hung his hopes on working with our former Sunni enemies in Anbar, like Sheikh Sattar Abu Risa, who led the Council for the Salvation of the Anbar Province. The sheikh had begun the struggle of fighting the extremism of AQI on his own last summer and had requested help from the U.S. for many months. We finally joined him during the surge.

But the gains made by the combination of Sunni fighters and the U.S. military are in doubt after the sheikh was killed by a huge blast at his home Thursday. A state of emergency was declared in the province following his assassination. So Anbar isn't so safe after all.

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