What Do They Know?

Some security improvement in Anbar and Baghdad shows up in the latest big poll of Iraqis, but it's over-shadowed by a hefty majority indicating that the "surge" has either done nothing or made things worse:

Fewer than one-quarter of Iraqis report that things in Iraq are going well, down from 35 percent in March, while the number of people who expect conditions to improve in the next year has declined precipitously.

In November 2005, shortly before Iraq's historic open elections, 69 percent of residents said they believed life would be better in a year. That number decreased to 40 percent last March and 23 percent in the new poll.