A reader wrote in with this question:

The real question on the "surge" to me whether this is bottom up or top down idea. If it is bottom up with input from the boots it has a decent chance but if from the top down very little.

Previous top-down (Abizaid) replaced by new top down (Bush-Cheney w buy-in from Petraeus).

The bottom-up feeling is get out because we're no longer in control and can't stem the sectarian stuff without about 400k, but that's fantasy because we'd need a huge influx of allies and Bush-Cheney simply can't manage that after not cultivating those relationships all these years.

Bush should have come out in second term and really pressed wide range of allies for stabilizing troops. He should have mea culpa'd like crazy and made the deals.

Then he could have gone out a winner and the compromises would have seemed reasonable. This way, though, he sets up his successor to eat crow, and I don't think that's good leadership.