SO FAR, NOT MANY IRAQIS ARE "SURGING"

I'm going to try to keep track of Fredo's escalation plan and see if we can tell before August whether it is working or not. The initial reports aren't encouraging:


BAGHDAD, Feb. 14 — Thousands of American troops in armored Stryker vehicles swarmed three mostly Shiite neighborhoods of northeastern Baghdad on Wednesday, encountering little resistance during what commanders described as the first major sweep of the new security plan for the capital.

But even though an Iraqi announced the new phase of the security plan, it was clearly an American-led operation: only 200 Iraqi police officers and soldiers were involved, commanders said, working alongside about 2,500 Americans.