On TomDispatch, Kurdish advisor Peter Galbraith gives an stark assessment of the state of the surge, en route to making a case for shifting US troops to the Kurdish region, in part to "preserv[e] Kurdistan democracy."

While over on American Footprints, Eric Martin argues that keeping troops in the Kurdish region would have plenty of destabilizing effects.

LiberalOasis generally sides with Martin's argument (the Center for American Progress proposal appears acceptable, maintaining a Kurdish presence, but only until 2009, not for an indefinite and destabilzing occupation.)

But Galbraith's assessment of Iraq is an essential read, as it is an antidote to the distortions from the surge advocates.

In particular, Galbraith echoes and elaborates on Sen. Jim Webb's rejection of the surge-ites main argument: that the surge has turned the Iraqi people against Al Qaeda in the Anbar province.

Webb said on Meet The Press Sunday:

...the people in al-Anbar are not aligning themselves with the United States. It's "The enemy of the enemy is my friend."

This hasn't been the Iraqi military, the national military that's been taking out al-Qaeda. It's been a redneck justice. It's been these sectarian groups out there who don't like al-Qaeda. And if we leave, they still will not like al-Qaeda.

Galbraith adds more detail, and paints an even more disturbing picture:

The developments in Anbar are more significant. Tribesmen who had been attacking U.S. troops in support of the insurgency are now taking U.S. weapons to fight al-Qaeda and other Sunni extremists. Unfortunately, the Sunni fundamentalists are not the only enemy of these new U.S.-sponsored militias. The Sunni tribes also regard Iraq's Shiite-led government as an enemy, and the U.S. appears now to be in the business of arming both the Sunni and Shiite factions in what has long since become a civil war.

The surge was supposed to create the condidtions that would bring reconciliation between Iraqi factions. Instead, it's directly contributing to conditions for a more bloody civil war.

Much like how invading Iraq was supposed to weaken Al Qaeda, and instead has strengthened Al Qaeda.