The Iraq war are we getting the whole story?

I heard about this OP/ED today in the New York Times and went and read it and I was a bit surprised to see it published. I keep hearing from many who say that the surge isn't working and I would have to agree on some points with that. But I also was disappointed to hear many who said that they would give Gen. David Petraeus till Sept. to give the new plan a chance to work and here we are not even into Aug. yet and many of the same people who said they would give it a chance are already racing to the microphones and cameras to trumpet the failure already. It makes me wonder were they being honest when they said they would give it a chance or was it more political pandering because they already had their minds made up and were just waiting for the right opportunity to pounce. I wonder also at the timing of the charge to failure for the surge when I read articles like this. I hope that our "leaders" are not ignoring signs of progress for political purposes. I have heard from some of my local leaders who have been to Iraq within  the last month and much of what they reported echo's what I have read here. So again I wonder are stories like this being given a chance or are they going to be shot down and discredited for the sake of an election.

I found it to be informative and hopeful. But that could just be my half full glass. Here are some excerpts from the piece as well as a link to the full article.

A War We Just Might Win

VIEWED from Iraq, where we just spent eight days meeting with American and Iraqi military and civilian personnel, the political debate in Washington is surreal. The Bush administration has over four years lost essentially all credibility. Yet now the administration’s critics, in part as a result, seem unaware of the significant changes taking place.

Here is the most important thing Americans need to understand: We are finally getting somewhere in Iraq, at least in military terms. As two analysts who have harshly criticized the Bush administration’s miserable handling of Iraq, we were surprised by the gains we saw and the potential to produce not necessarily “victory” but a sustainable stability that both we and the Iraqis could live with.

After the furnace-like heat, the first thing you notice when you land in Baghdad is the morale of our troops. In previous trips to Iraq we often found American troops angry and frustrated — many sensed they had the wrong strategy, were using the wrong tactics and were risking their lives in pursuit of an approach that could not work.

Today, morale is high. The soldiers and marines told us they feel that they now have a superb commander in Gen. David Petraeus; they are confident in his strategy, they see real results, and they feel now they have the numbers needed to make a real difference

Everywhere, Army and Marine units were focused on securing the Iraqi population, working with Iraqi security units, creating new political and economic arrangements at the local level and providing basic services — electricity, fuel, clean water and sanitation — to the people. Yet in each place, operations had been appropriately tailored to the specific needs of the community. As a result, civilian fatality rates are down roughly a third since the surge began — though they remain very high, underscoring how much more still needs to be done.

We traveled to the northern cities of Tal Afar and Mosul. This is an ethnically rich area, with large numbers of Sunni Arabs, Kurds and Turkmens. American troop levels in both cities now number only in the hundreds because the Iraqis have stepped up to the plate. Reliable police officers man the checkpoints in the cities, while Iraqi Army troops cover the countryside. A local mayor told us his greatest fear was an overly rapid American departure from Iraq. All across the country, the dependability of Iraqi security forces over the long term remains a major question mark.