As the MSM largely ignores what is truly occurring in Iraq, the bumper-sticker tactics of the Republican Party (and their minions) seem to be working. In a recent poll of Americans regarding their perception of the success of the Surge, the following question was asked of 1,067 adults, nationwide (margin of error +/- 3%):

“As you may know, the U.S. has sent a troop surge to Iraq. From what you have heard or read, would you say the troop surge is making the situation in Iraq better, making it worse, or is it having no impact on the situation in Iraq so far?”

Better: 42%
Worse: 13%
No Impact: 43%
Unsure: 11%

So if Republicans say “the Surge is working” over and over and over, 42% of Americans buy it. Add to that the complete lack of reporting on the true conditions “on the ground” (a Bush favorite phrase). The vacuum of information has left the less curious American public with nothing to base their opinion on other than a ridiculously inaccurate slogan. While I realize that the 42% about which I write don’t often grace the halls of the Mighty Corrente Building, here is a little “snapshot” (a Patreas favorite) of conditions “on the ground” in Iraq, today.

[via]

Fierce clashes between Shiite gunmen and troops spread to new Shiite areas of Iraq on Saturday as the overall death toll from five days of bloodshed surged to nearly 230…

“Seventy-five people have been killed and 498 wounded in clashes in Sadr City in the last four days,” Qassim Mohammed, a spokesman for Baghdad health directorate, told reporters in Sadr City…

Sadr City, bastion of the feared Mahdi Army militia of anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, has been engulfed in fierce clashes between security forces and the militiamen.
Clashes erupted there after Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki launched a crackdown on Shiite fighters in the southern city of Basra on Tuesday.
Ahmed, a resident of the slum neighbourhood of some two million people, said the situation was deteriorating.
“The hospitals are overflowing with wounded. They can’t take any more. Even the medical stores are closed,” he said.
“There is no electricity, no water or fuel. We are afraid of gunbattles. The main markets are also closed,” he added.
In Basra eight people were killed in a new air strike early on Saturday as clashes between troops and Shiite fighters continued for the fifth straight day.

[via]

Fierce clashes erupted in the southern city of Nasiriyah early on Friday between Iraqi forces and Shia fighters, killing at least four policemen, a local police official said.
In the southern city of Kut, 45 people were reported dead and 87 wounded from at least three days of fighing.
Helicopters dropped leaflets on Basra calling on residents to help the government in its fight “to rid Basra of outlaws”.
Few journalists have been able to travel to the southern city, but witnesses said that Basra’s streets were deserted - with shops and businesses shut.
Hassan, a resident of Basra, told Al Jazeera: “For two days now, we woke up to sounds of explosion - we have never witnessed such huge attacks in Basra.”
He said all roads have been blocked and Mahdi Army fighters attacked Iraqi forces from residential and commercial blocks.

[via]

At least 133 bodies and 647 wounded have been brought to five hospitals in the eastern half of Baghdad over the past five days of clashes, the head of the health directorate for eastern Baghdad, Ali Bustan, said on Saturday.
Health workers say hospitals are overflowing and understaffed in the Sadr City slum, a vast stronghold of Sadr’s followers, and a ring of Iraqi and U.S. forces around the area makes it impossible to evacuate the wounded.

So when John McCain calls on Democrats to admit that the Surge is working, when General Patreas comes to Capital Hill next month to spin that the Surge is working, hopefully the press will wake up and present some of the information above and not simply regurgitate the Republican mantras. The stenography of the MSM got us into this war by selling it, and they are now keeping us in it by failing to report on it.