No, I swear. This is not a press release from the White House. This is Michael Husayn Young (the well-known expert on offshoots): "Yet it was the 2007 surge that took this realization to new heights. US commanders grasped that the security of Iraqi cities and civilians had to be the centerpiece of a new counter-insurgency strategy requiring US soldiers to insert themselves more than ever into Iraqi society. Iraq's complex social dynamics were studied and, as effectively as possible depending on location, acted upon. For the first time the discussion in the US seriously addressed what a pullout might mean in terms of Iraqi suffering." (thanks Amer)