everyone seems to conveniently forget what the actual purpose of the "surge" was

Lieberman Introduces Amendment To Recognize The ‘Strategic Success Of The Troop Surge In Iraq’

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While the surge has certainly produced calmer streets in Iraq, it has not achieved its primary purpose of facilitating political reconciliation. The surge has essentially frozen into place “a fragmented and increasingly fractured country” and produced an “an oil revenue-fueled, religious Shia-dominated national government with close ties to Iran.”

Lieberman claimed to offer his “bipartisan amendment” (that has no Democratic co-sponsors) in hopes that the “Senate can unite” around it. But speaking in favor of the amendment, Sen. Lindsey Graham quickly politicized it: “General Petraeus said today in the Washington Post, I believe, that Iraq is still the central battlefront in the war on terror. Senator Obama has disagreed with that on numerous occasions, saying it is Afghanistan and Pakistan.”

As Yglesias explains, “An al-Qaeda offshoot only arose in Iraq in the first place because we invaded there and created an appealing venue in which to try to kill American soldiers and bleed American resources.” The current challenge is to refocus on the areas where al Qaeda poses the most significant strategic threat to the United States.

(Think Progress)