I'll leave semantic discussions to others, but lost in all of this discussion is the cost of the surge. Wars have become free, with neither the dollar cost nor cost in lives subject for polite conversation anymore.
The troop escalation was announced in January of 2007. Since that time over 1100 US troops lost their lives. Obviously not all of those losses are attributable to the presence of additional troops in Iraq, but they are all attributable to the continuing presence of the US in Iraq.
