What constitutes a successful surge, Diana West responds

Diana West has responded to my latest post in our debate about the Iraq surge and its implications for the surge in Afghanistan. This was my first post about the subject. Diana responded here. Then I wrote this post, which Diana now addresses.
In essence, the view I expressed in my two posts is that the surge in Iraq was a relative success because it did most of the things we intended it do, and could reasonably have expected it to do, and was better than the alternative. These, I think, are the most relevant considerations in assessing the surge. The latter point, in particular, is probably the most relevant one in trying to assess what to do under somewhat comparable circumstances in Afghanistan.
This view is debatable, of course, as Diana has shown. But on this blog, all debates come to an end, at least temporarily. Consistent with my usual practice, Diana gets the last word.

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