"The surge" has not succeeded.

A GAO report yesterday points out that "the surge," or at least the deals cut with the militant groups during the troop increase, has succeeded in lowering violence in Iraq.

However, the "benchmarks," (to reach back into the lexicon of one of the previous strategies) have all completely stalled. The oil deal is seemingly dead. Provincial elections are now pushed back into November, past the US election. The dispensation of Kirkuk has been moved to a distant future. A working plan for un-de-Baathification was approved, but the commission is unstaffed and inactive. The Iraqi security forces still cannot operate alone.....

These were the measurements of "the surge." Although the reduction in violence is extremely welcome, without resolving the underlying issues, the violence will always be just an election or one decision away.

But perhaps the most worrying thing should be this,

The administration lacks an updated and comprehensive Iraq strategy to move beyond the "surge" of combat troops President Bush launched in January 2007 as an 18-month effort to curtail violence and build Iraqi democracy.

They don't have a plan for after, and there are no troops left.