Robert Kagan — leaning heavily on Iraq the Model‘s reporting — argues that the surge is working, and slags the media for not noticing:
A front-page story in The Post last week suggested that the Bush administration has no backup plan in case the surge in Iraq doesn’t work. I wonder if The Post and other newspapers have a backup plan in case it does.
Even with the hopeful signs, I wouldn’t be so flip about not having a Plan B. But the WaPo article that Kagan references isn’t particularly convincing; Bush and Gen. Pace won’t talk about what to do if the surge disappoints, but SecDef Gates says its on policymakers’ minds (“I would be irresponsible if I weren’t thinking about what the alternatives might be”), and there’s no reason to think he’s lying.
