But the supply of money is not endless.

Cannon fodder? Maybe.

One possible benefit could be the ability to provide a tonic for the troops ("they care enough about us back home to come visit"), and there is limited ability to witness the life during wartime experience of the soldier and the civilian.

But as salutary as the former benefit may be, I suspect the latter benefit is incredibly reduced by security processes; the vast majority of official visitors are kept in the Green Zone or, as with McCain's infamous market visit weighed down by body armor (because we all know hand-thrown fish are nothing compared to hand-thrown grenades), kept so completely removed from reality as to render the whole affair useless, at least as a window into the culture.

In the absence of a truly meaningful rationale, we are left with the lingering suspicion that all this is a positioning play. A political opportunity. A photo op.

None of which will keep a soldier alive or an Iraqi citizen from being blown to bits. Perhaps next time when Mr. Obama goes to Iraq, he'll have the power of the nation at his back as our President.

Wait, wasn't there a story this weekend that we're losing in Afghanistan but winning in Iraq this month?

Are we winning in Eastasia or Eurasia today??

FSM help me, I wish they could at least keep their propaganda and lies straight.

The number of attacks by insurgents and sectarian factions has dropped significantly in Baghdad, although sporadic shootings and bombings have continued.

Some 500 Iraqis were killed last month, compared with more than 1,000 in April.

And the toll of American soldiers killed in May - at 19 - was the lowest monthly figure since the conflict began.

Unfortunately for Obama, the surge is more than just "an endless supply of money & cannon fodder". This is what we liberals overlook, and it's going to be Obama's weak spot.

The surge was also a shift in the way our troops engaged with the Iraqi people. In the first years of the war, American troops would go out into some neighborhood that was under suspicion for some reason, cordon off a few blocks, and throw every male of military age into Abu Ghraib. We realize now that we're not fighting against the Iraqi people, but that the Iraqi people are who we have to win over.

Yes we are there for the wrong reasons. And the fighting will probably never end. But it's a huge vulnerability for Obama to advocate a pullout when the statistics are improving.

Most Americans and Iraqis favor withdrawal, so it's really hard to see this as some huge liability.

Yes, we can't leave. We're still not done training the ARVN's! When is McCain going to be asked his opinion about the Saigon gov't and the fighting efficiency of the ARVN's? Because I'd really like to know if he ever struggled with that concept. He may be a VN veteran, but he never had to deal with the ARVN's.

And it's the same goddamn thing again. No amount of money we can fling, no amount of troops we can send can make the squabbling elites and ethnicities form a nation -- or inspire the people to act like one nation and enforce order among themselves.

It's not something we can do to them or for them.

(But we're keeping the superbases. That goes without sayin'.)