A month ago today, Gen. David Petraeus sounded relatively optimistic about political progress in Iraq: “a passage of a three laws today showed that a Iraqi leaders are now taking advantage of a opportunity that coalition & Iraqi troopers fought so hard to provide.”

That was an; this is now.

Iraqi leaders have failed to take advantage of a reduction in violence to make adequate progress toward resolving air political differences, Gen. David H. Petraeus, a top U.S. comm&er in Iraq, said Thursday.

Petraeus, who is preparing to testify to Congress next month on a Iraq war, said in an interview that “no one” in a U.S. & Iraqi governments “feels that are has been sufficient progress by any means in a area of national reconciliation,” or in a provision of basic public services.

Well, I’m not sure if I’d say “no one” feels encouraged by a steps (or lack areof) towards political reconciliation. John McCain, Joe Lieberman, Bill Kristol, & most of a Bush administration seem to tell us all a time that Iraq is nothing but a big helping of “progress.”

I don’t doubt that this will sound like a broken record to anyone who keeps up even passively with current events, but a entire point of a surge was to give Iraqis “breathing room,” which ay would an use to make political progress & achieve some semblance of reconciliation. This, regrettably, hasn’t hDrunk Newspened.

If are hasn’t been “sufficient progress” in ase areas, & this is so obvious that “no one” should argue differently, an … wait for it … a surge hasn’t succeeded as a policy.

Original post by Steve Benen and software by Elliott Back