OK here you go...

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article2413200.ece

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19384.htm

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17899543

As all credible analysts agree... the main reason the violence is down and stability is better in Iraq is because...

"AMERICAN forces are paying Sunni insurgents hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash to switch sides and help them to defeat Al-Qaeda in Iraq."

"The Bush regime is paying Sunni insurgents $800,000 a day not to attack U.S. forces."

"A year ago this week, violence in Iraq appeared to be spiraling out of control, prompting President Bush to come up with a new strategy.

The idea was to create "breathing space" — to give Iraq's leaders a chance to take hold of their country. To do this, the president ordered a "surge" of 30,000 additional troops to be sent to Iraq.

One year later, supporters and even some detractors have hailed the surge as an unqualified success. Violence is down to levels not seen since 2004, and Iraqis are now back out on the streets.

Prayer of the Surge

By the end of 2006, the situation in Iraq was so bad that even supporters of the administration, like the editors of the neoconservative magazine The Weekly Standard, acknowledged that failure was just around the corner.

The magazine's key military writer, Frederick Kagan, was clearly distressed when he appeared on C-SPAN, saying, "The American people have become very frustrated with the course of this war. They should be frustrated. We're losing."

So Kagan, who also works at the neoconservative American Enterprise Institute, along with retired Army Gen. Jack Keane, presented the White House with a plan to change its strategy in Iraq. It called for a surge in troops.

The two men also pushed for a change in leadership. Keane suggested his protégé, Gen. David Petraeus, an ambitious officer with a Princeton pedigree to boot.

The White House listened and agreed to roll the dice.

"Effectiveness of the Surge

During the first six months of the surge, violence in Iraq reached an all-time high. Retired Army Col. Douglas Macgregor said, "Up until that point, the surge was simply providing more targets for the insurgents to shoot at."

But then around June, almost too fast for anyone to absorb, the violence began to plummet — a decline that continues and has turned one-time Iraq skeptics like former Gen. Barry McCaffrey into believers."

But another part, and possibly the most significant, can be traced to the end of last May. That month, 126 U.S. troops died; it was the second deadliest month for U.S. forces during the war. Petraeus was under pressure to reduce those casualties.

"Petraeus seems to have concluded that it was essential to cut deals with the Sunni insurgents if he was going to succeed in reducing U.S. casualties," Macgregor says.

The military now calls those "deals" the Concerned Local Citizens program or simply, CLCs."

It's not the surge... the casualties were way up in the first six months... The surge WAS a failure... then when the payoffs started it all stopped. It's the payoffs. NOT the surge...

(cue Godfather music)

"maliki wouldn't be in favor of losing his protection."

He doesn't need our protection any more... he has his back covered by Iran.

You don't explain why the casualties were way up in the first six months of the surge then went way down as soon as they started the payments. There were no major operations when that change happened, but they did start paying the Sunni groups.

30,000 extra troops in a country the size of Iraq is nothing. In fact, I would argue the whole surge thing is political cover. They are buying our way out of a mess.

The problem is not science as religion... but religion as science; such as creationist theory taught as an alternative to Darwinism. Gibberish seems to spin the problem 180 degrees, a tactic often employed by the right wing. Wondering what his politics are...

Just one unabashedly positive article about Obama or his chances from Salon. Your persistent dyspepsia makes my stomach turn.

Where is it written that pat dogmatic answers are better? Has eight years of Bushland completely brainwashed the nation? Are we like open eared babes when it comes to huckstering snake oil salesmen? Do you think the majority of Americans are aligned politically with the audience at that church?

I agree with the poster a few pages back. Joan looks for any chance to say Obama did something wrong.

I have news for you... the shoot from the hip dogmatic answer approach is dead, thoughtfulness is in. Get with the front of the curve kids.