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You are right in that where we have heavy troop presence in an area, we are winning. But the problem is that the Insurgents can simply retreat to another area and cause chaos.

General Petarus do not have enough troops to get the job done. He needs at least 200,000 more troops if we want to completly pacify Iraq. Right now, all we are doing is making sure that the dam doesn't break but in the long term, it is not a feasible strategy.

I expect that if General Petraeus requires more troops, he will not be shy about asking for them in September. In the meantime, we have made significant progress by changing tactics in fighting the insurgency. Specifically, by involving tribal leaders directly in MLF operations and utilizing a growing Iraqi police force, we have been able to deny safe havens to the al-Qaeda operatives and Baathists who act as insurgents.

We continue to work with the Iraqi government to stabilize relations between fractious minorities, at least some of whom are beginning to see the futility of battling each other when they could be participating in the leadership of their own country. It's still a mess - but it is getting better, and pulling the plug at this point would result in a certain disaster. As a means of historical comparison: Germany was a mess in 1949, too.