No:

Violence Metrics

	June/July 2006	June/July 2007	Change
Iraqi Military and Police Killed	349	429	Up 23%
Multiple Fatality Bombings	110	82	Down 25%
# Killed in Mult. Fatality Bombings	885	1,053	Up 19%
Iraqi Civilians Killed (All violent causes)	6,739	5,300	Hard to say1
U.S. Troop Fatalities	104	187	Up 80%
U.S. Troops Wounded	983	1,423	Up 45%
Size of Insurgency	20,000+	~70,0002	Up ~250%
Attacks on Oil and Gas Pipelines	8	143	Up 75%

¹Methodology changed dramatically between 2006 and 2007, so numbers are highly suspect.
²Number is for March 2007.
³Numbers are for June only. No July numbers are available.

Infrastructure Metrics

	June/July 2006	June/July 2007	Change
Diesel Fuel Available	26.7 Ml	20.7 Ml	Down 22%
Kerosene Available	7.08 Ml	6.3 Ml	Down 11%
Gasoline Available	29.4 Ml	22.2 Ml	Down 24%
LPG Available	4,936 tons	4,932 tons	Down 0.1%
Electricity Generated	8,800 Mwatts	8,420 Mwatts	Down 4%
Hours Electricity Per Day	11.7	10.14	Down ~14%

⁴No numbers available for June/July. Figure is extrapolated from May and August numbers.

This was compiled by Kevin Drum, using statistics from the Brookings Institute.  While many will point out that killings and violence has gone down since the surge began, it is important to understand that violence in Iraq always goes down in summer.  Thus, Kevin does a seasonal comparison, so we can look at apples-to-apples.

Finally, these charts only show the military prong of our efforts in Iraq.  The political prong isn’t even debated by Bush supporters — everyone knows that is an abyssmal failure.

UPDATE:  And there’s more good news about the surge:

The number of Iraqis fleeing their homes has soared since the American troop increase began in February, according to data from two humanitarian groups, accelerating the partition of the country into sectarian enclaves.

Despite some evidence that the troop buildup has improved security in certain areas, sectarian violence continues and American-led operations have brought new fighting, driving fearful Iraqis from their homes at much higher rates than before the tens of thousands of additional troops arrived, the studies show.

WATCH THIS STORY:  Turning to the political end of the spectrum, it’s clear that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki simply is failing at keeping his government together.  This fact is virtually undisputed by everyone from the Bush Adminstration to the Daily Kos kids.

But now comes word that al-Maliki’s rival, the guy who was interim Prime Minister of Iraq in 2004, Ayad Allawi, has retained a Washington D.C. lobbying firm, and bought the Web domain rights to Allawi-for-Iraq.com.  The Washington lobbying firm, Barbour, Griffith, and Rogers (BGR), is a Republican outfit, full of Bush people — including its president: Robert Blackwill, the one-time White House point man on Iraq and who was once the U.S. Presidential Envoy to Iraq in 2004.

Furthermore, it looks like Allawi is getting some advice (and more) from the Bush Administration:

[A]dministration officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the prime minister was coached and aided by the U.S. government, its allies and friends of the administration. Among them was Dan Senor, former spokesman for the CPA who has more recently represented the Bush campaign in media appearances. Senor, who has denied writing the speech, sent Allawi recommended phrases. He also helped Allawi rehearse in New York last

Does this mean that the White House is attempting to undermine al-Maliki?  The White House denied it today, but all of the foregoing suggest otherwise.

If it is true, and I suspect it is, I find it extremely ironic.  Here we are trying to bring democracy to Iraq, and we’re already meddling in their politics by trying to oust their democratically-elected leader.

P.S.  Allawi, by the way, might not be a good guy.  He’s been described as "Saddam Lite":

In late June, just before he took office as Iraq’s prime minister, Iyad Allawi lined up six prisoners in a Baghdad prison and executed them with a handgun while 30 people watched. So an Australian reporter claims, though he won’t reveal his two eyewitnesses. Another story making the rounds in Baghdad: Allawi had two insurgents shot in front of him. And then there’s the rumor that he chopped off a guy’s hand. Iraq’s new boss denies all these allegations to the press, but who cares?

My spideysense tells me we’ll be dealing with this guy in 20 years….