Iraqi Ethnic Cleansing and the Efficacy of the Surge

A fascinating position by researchers at the University of California that suggests that ethnic cleansing, not an increase in US troops, led to the decrease in violence in Iraq.

"By the launch of the surge, many of the targets of conflict had either been killed or fled the country, and they turned off the lights when they left," geography professor John Agnew of the University of California Los Angeles, who led the study, said in a statement.

"Essentially, our interpretation is that violence has declined in Baghdad because of intercommunal violence that reached a climax as the surge was beginning," said Agnew, who studies ethnic conflict.

In other words, ethnic violence did the job before American soldiers got the chance.