Sources of info re "Is the Surge Working?"

Factual Questions
1

Disclaimer - I don’t want a debate about whether the surge in Iraq is “working” and whether “victory is in sight”, for example discussed on CNN.com currently at:

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/09/23/fact-check-is-victory-in-sight-in-iraq-as-mccain-says/#more-20053

But, that is the question I am posting about. MY question, though, is where to get useful information. Reading that article and browsing on CNN, I did not find any.

What sources carry current information about whether the surge has created the space in which Iraqi politicians could resolve their relations and effective constitution?

For example, the Baker commission report gave a list of a dozen or so Iraqi political goals that the US wants to support achieving. With my current weak awareness of it all, I might start by asking whether the commission or its agents are rendering frequent or recent judgements of how many of those goals are now met, but I don’t think I have heard anything on this since perhaps 6 months ago, and that was a chance bit on radio.

Is there a BakerCommissionGoalTelethon.com where I can look at a giant fake thermometer, or something like that?

Or other sources of estimation about Iraqi political progress?

Thanks!

Moderators, if somebody has pointed at some sources, feel free to move this to GD or Pit when the inevitable occurs, but I beg you consider there is still a factual question on the table if the inevitable occurs before any source pointing - please?

2

Iraq Index.

Recently: UCLA study of satellite imagery casts doubt on surge’s success in Baghdad.
More: Newsroom | UCLA

Article: Why an Iraq-style surge won't work in Afghanistan.

5 Persistent Fault Lines, 10 Key Challenges: Issues - Center for American Progress

3

Ahhh, thank you Measure. This stuff is great. Look at this, from the most recent archive at the first citation:
AUTHORS’ POLITICAL BENCHMARK ASSESSMENT
BENCHMARK SCORE
2008 Budget 1.0
Pension Law 1.0
Purging Extremists from Government 1.0
Reformed De-Ba’athification Legislation 0.5
Sons of Iraq Employment Program 0.5
Amnesty Law 0.5
Distribution of Federal Funding to Provinces 0.5
Provincial Powers Act 0.5
Kirkuk Referendum/Resolution 0.0
Hydrocarbons Law 0.0
Provincial Election Legislation 0.0
TOTAL 5.5/11

4

Patraeus says the relative calm is fragile and do not think anything is over. It can fall apart tomorrow. They just started to bribe the right people.

5

Nice catch. It would be nice if that could be tracked over time though.

The International Crisis Group monitors Iraqi news each month, since Sep 2003. Assembling all that into tabular format would require a lot of work though. http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?action=cw_search&l=1&t=1&cw_country=51&cw_date=

6

Bob Woodward’s latest book “The War Within” discusses the surge (I understand that his take is that conditions have improved but it wasn’t the surge that is resonsible for it). I haven’t read it so I can’t vouch for it’s credibility, but I have read an excerpt and reviews by professional critics.