"The surge needs to go through the beginning of next year for sure," said Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, the day-to-day commander for U.S. military operations in Iraq.

General Odierno is the former head of the 4th Infantry, and appropriately blasted for the actions of his command. If he's in charge of the ops Petraeus is writing, there is no way in hell the "surge" will do anything but make things even worse.

Petraeus is the right guy to run the show there but is probably too late. With Odierno behind him, he's screwed, and so are we.