Upon the one-year anniversary of the troop surge, are we happy violence in Iraq is down? Of course, duh. But applauding this and this alone is like being thankful for the absence of fire in an already burned-down forest. There's no chance for fire because there's nothing left to burn. Experts explain that a major reason(s) for the decline in violence is because many civilians and insurgents are already dead, hundreds of thousands of Iraqi citizens have fled the country leaving fewer targets, and militias/sects have already begun to partition the country, making less need for violence (at this point anyway).

As for the lack of any political progress in the country, this again equates to that burned-down forest having no new trees, remaining just a collection of charred ruins. Until political progress occurs, Iraq remains metaphorically barren.