Surge!

Gregory Djerejian doesn't like how the term "surge" is being tossed around with regard to Afghanistan:

...has it occurred to anyone that it is the U.S. now seven year and counting troop presence in and around 'Af-Pak' (the phrase much in vogue among the arrayed cognoscenti, one espies, though one might prefer Pashtunistan to less clumsily conflate two sovereign, or at least semi-sovereign, states) that is now helping render more resilient the Taliban, or neo-Taliban, or whatever you might like to call them, given like most humans the locals tend to resist the humiliations of occupation (nor can they be enamored by the increasing use of air strikes, of course, strikes that almost inevitably kill myriad innocents too, thus further embittering populations we are meant to be winning over)?

One can only hope Richard Holbrooke fundamentally gets this.

Max Boot checks out the new polling numbers in Afghanistan and downplays the significance of the drop in public support. Ackerman has a different view.