Despite the infusion of nearly 30,000 Army and Marine Corps personnel, Adm. Michael Mullen, the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs, admits, “No amount of troops in no amount of time will make much of a difference” in Iraq if there is no effective Iraqi government. Are the objectives and benchmarks set for the Iraqi government achievable? Marc Lynch, Professor of Political Science at George Washington University, discusses the realities and the rhetoric that surrounds the troop surge.

(See the full event: Assessing the Surge.)