The Surge Didn't Decrease Violence in Iraq

According to research done at UCLA, the surge didn't decrease violence in Iraq, ethnic cleansing did.

Studying satellite imagery of night light in Baghdad neighborhoods dominated by Sunni residents, they came up with an alternative conclusion: The Sunni Muslims and Shiite Muslims had largely stopped killing each other by the time the "surge" of U.S. troops arrived in 2007.

In other words, the remaining Sunnis, defeated, turned out the lights and left. And then the U.S. troops came in.