STEPHEN GREEN on mismanaging the infowar.

Here’s the question nobody is asking: Just how stupid is the Bush Administration? OK, well, really, everybody even half a step to the left of… no, wait… everybody asks that question, pretty much all the time. But in my case, I’m not trying to score points with it.

Look. The Surgeâ„¢ is not about the extra troops. Oh, the extra boots on the ground were necessary to get things moving, and to show the enemy (and our Iraqi allies) just how serious we were about implementing a new strategy. But the real key was the change in tactics, not in the increased numbers.

But by allowing the press to label General Petraeus’s change of strategy a “surge,” without correction, gives the impression that our successes are all about the numbers.

Yeah, that’s a point I’ve made here before, but it’s one that the Administration hasn’t done much to get out.