re: #231 austin_blue

The surge came at the Golden Moment when the Sunni tribes decided they were tired being blown up. Did the surge help the movement that stopped the random slaughter at the time? Yes. Would it have been successful without the buy-in of the Sunnis?

Open for discussion, but I have my doubts. An additional 30,000 troops in a population of 26 million is…well, you do the math.

For comparison purposes…

NYC has 30,000 cops, policing 8 million mostly peaceful people in 200 square miles.