Time will tell

Early progress in Baghdad crackdown - Conflict in Iraq - MSNBC.com

The key to success may rest in the deployment and activities of increased trooops - more so than the increase itself. If so, then it might be possible to continue improving conditions within Baghdad. If that can be maintained for a long enough period of time, eventually Iraqi leaders might find it more beneficial to advance their causes through the political system rather than through the barrel of a gun or the fanaticism of a suicide bomber.

We shall see.