The Surge Is Working (© 2007- GOP Inc.)

Andrew Sullivan posts a letter a soldier in Iraq wrote to his father-

"No one ever mentions the fact that we have literally built walls around each neighborhood and along every highway as the reason the violence is down here. The place looks like an Orwell novel gone wrong. The people cannot shoot each other through walls and the insurgents cannot move around to plant their bombs. A society cannot function walled off form each other. We pay every bill, manage every facet of governance. The government at every level is a joke. The ministries are controlled by one faction (Shia). They have almost no experience or education. A bunch of guys walk around in suits and look important while they do nothing.

The local governments (to use the term loosely) are a collection of gangsters and strong men concerned with consolidating power and lining their pockets with cash from kickbacks of U.S. construction projects. The people have no work ethic. (I offered two grubby starving men 20 dollars each to unload some grain bags... they asked for fifty and then refused to work for less. I unloaded it myself) They throw their trash in the street until it piles high enough for the kids to play on it, and get sick. So, in short, I don't see a Capitalistic Democracy sprouting along the Tigris. I see the little boy (The U.S. Army) with his finger in the dike. If we remove our hand, it all goes away."

I can't imagine why people-- Iraqi citizens, Americans-- are so ungrateful toward our brilliant leaders for this.

Every lie uttered, every soldier and Iraqi killed, every billion spent, every year wasted... and this is what we have to show for it. It's stories like this that make me wish I didn't care so much about all of this. We all want to hope for the best, but reality is something else.

There's a reason that the pundits are pretending that the war is over. It's super depressing.