Good News From Iraq

Even the New York Times concedes that the surge has worked: the blast walls are coming down.

Market by market, square by square, the walls are beginning to come down. The miles of hulking blast walls, ugly but effective, were installed as a central feature of the surge of American troops to stop neighbors from killing one another.

. . .

The slow dismantling of the concrete walls is the most visible sign of a fundamental change here in the Iraqi capital. The American surge strategy, which increased the number of United States troops and contributed to stability here, is drawing to a close.

Although 148,000 U.S. troops remain in Iraq, that's down from 170,000, and 8,000 will leave Iraq by February.

The surge worked. McCain was right.