Troop Surge Failing Ahead of Schedule

Can the Iraq 'Surge' Be Salvaged?
As Violence Seems to Outpace Progress, Officials Talk of Next Steps
By GREG JAFFE and YOCHI J. DREAZEN (WSJ)

WASHINGTON -- When the Bush administration decided to send tens of thousands of additional troops to Iraq, the strategy rested on an unspoken trade-off: U.S. troops would risk greater casualties to tamp down violence and buy the Baghdad government time to make the political compromises needed to reconcile the country's warring factions.

But a resurgence of sectarian violence and attacks on U.S. troops, coupled with little to no progress on crucial Iraqi political goals, is already spurring discussion about whether the current strategy can succeed.

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