Potemkin Village

Kevin Drum has been all over David Petraeus' PR surge to bamboozle lawmakers, the press and the public, and today he finds the mother of all deceptions. That Dora market, tourist destination number one for all visiting delegations? "It's like an Indiana market!" "Five rugs for five bucks!" That market? Yeah, it's made of papier maché:

"This is General Petraeus's baby," said Staff Sgt. Josh Campbell, 24, of Winfield, Kan., as he set out on a patrol near the market on a hot evening in mid-August.

....[But] visits to key U.S. bases and neighborhoods in and around Baghdad show that recent improvements are sometimes tenuous, temporary, even illusory....Even U.S. soldiers assigned to protect Petraeus's showcase remain skeptical. "Personally, I think it's a false representation," Campbell said, referring to the portrayal of the Dora market as an emblem of the surge's success. "But what can I say? I'm just doing my job and don't ask questions."

....After the delegation left, Maj. Ron Minty , 36, said that the generals had wanted 300 shops open for business by July 1. By the day of the delegation's visit, 303 had opened....Still, the Dora market is a Potemkin village of sorts. The U.S. military hands out $2,500 grants to shop owners to open or improve their businesses. The military has fixed windows and doors and even helped rebuild shops that had burned down, soldiers and others said...."The Americans are giving money, so they're opening up stores," said Falah Hassan Fadhil, 27, who sells cosmetics.

1st Lt. Jose Molina, who is in charge of monitoring and disbursing the grant money, said the U.S. military includes barely operating stores in its tally. "Although they sell dust, they are open for business," said Molina, 35, from Dallas. "They intend to sell goods or they may just have a handful of goods. But they are still counted."

This is no more a sign of progress than a Hollywood movie set would be. You can secure one area and turn it into your perfect indicator but that doesn't make it ACTUALLY indicative of anything. Until you look at overall goals instead of random anecdotes you'll never get the real story. And if you read the independent judgment of the overall goals, you see that they are failing.

UPDATE: Speaking of independent judgments, why is Michael O'Hanlon getting another chance to explain his views on the surge in the New York Times? How about one of the researchers on the GAO report? Somebody without an agenda?