The Surge

According to the Bush administration, in particular his National Security Advisor, Stephen Hadley, it wasn't actually the surge that brought about the relative lessening of attacks inside Iraq.  It was a series of new covert tactics, all of which are not being disclosed to the public at this time, that have caused the downturn in violence.  The NSA credits these new actions as the real cause as opposed to the surge. And the White House has confirmed this.

So, it wasn't the surge after all that worked.  It was highly secret, CIA type actions that brought about the sudden change.  Interesting.  It seems that McCain's hammering of the surge issue is a little bit 'out of touch' with reality.