Wait

Michael Totten has an op-ed up over at the New York Daily News that describes what he saw while he was in Iraq. As usual, Totten describes the situation in Iraq honestly - the good and the bad. And he counsels the hardest thing in the political world: patience.

While American politicians bicker among themselves from eight time zones away about whether the surge led by Gen. David Petraeus is working or not, I returned to Iraq to see for myself.

This trip - from which I returned this month - was my fourth reporting stint in the country since the conflict began. And this time, what I saw was overwhelming, undeniable and, like it or not, complicated: In some places, the surge is working remarkably well. In others, it is not. And the only way we will know for sure whether the tide can be turned is to continue the policy and wait.

I know that's not what many Americans and politicians want to hear, but it's the truth.

On my first stop, I embedded with the 82nd Airborne Division in the Graya'at area of northern Baghdad. There, the soldiers live and work in the city 24 hours a day. Their sector has been so thoroughly cleared of insurgents that they haven't suffered a single casualty this year. I walked the streets without fear and met dozens of genuinely friendly and supportive Iraqi civilians, who greeted the soldiers like friends.

The hitch is that Moqtada al-Sadr's radical Shia Mahdi Army has infiltrated the Iraqi Army unit that shares the outpost. American soldiers are training them while their comrades kill American soldiers elsewhere in the country.

The frank reporting - warts and all - are Totten's hallmark. While there is plenty to be worried about, there are also plenty of hopeful signs. And the only rational course is to give General Petraeus the time he needs to sort out what the end result will be. The alternative, withdrawal, a genocidal bloodbath and a catastrophic hit on national security for the United States is unacceptable.