Bush: It'll be months not weeks before we know if 'surge' has worked

Marking the fourth anniversary of the liberation of Iraq President Bush used a statement to say that the Baghdad security operation “will take months, not days or weeks."  To date less than half of the 22,000 US troops surge has arrived in Iraq for the new security operations under the direction of counter insurgency expert General David H. Petraeus.  “The new strategy will need more time to take effect and there will be good days, and there will be bad days ahead,” President Bush said.

In an interview for the BBC yesterday General Petraeus gave an upbeat account of the early impact of the surge.

A poll for the BBC has found that "Iraqis are becoming increasingly pessimistic about the future of their country" but another poll suggests that "most Iraqis believe life is better for them now than it was under Saddam Hussein."