Teresita: The time preceeding the surge wasn’t a vacuum. The US and increasingly the Iraqi’s were taking the fight to the sunni extremists, and killing many of them. Al Queda had shown their colors to the locals, and were not pleasant taskmasters. The war of attrition had effect.

Tides of change on a battlefield happen for a reason. The surge was good timing, with tactics and manpower to take advantage of a situation that had been developing. The sale had been prepared, the surge closed it.

A similar surge one year previous would probably not had the same effect.

Do you think that if the US hadn’t shown up when a large group were ready for a change in allegiance, no one else would have?

Derek