The Blind Men and the Elephant

When I was a little kid, we didn't have culturally sensitive books, but I do remember one that had a story about blind men trying to figure out what an elephant was simply by feel. The one who held the tail thought that it was a rope. The one at the legs thought it to be a tree, and the one at the trunk thought it to be some kind of giant snake.
The reason that I bring this up, is that the adage "while victory has a thousand fathers, defeat is an orphan" needs to be updated at least in regards to the Surge. Apparently, the Democrats who were calling for our defeat and had adopted it as part of their campaign against Bush, are now confronted with reality, and they don't like it. Obama had originally said that the Surge couldn't work, but now has backpedalled to say that it did work beyond people's "wildest dreams." But that the Surge was only successful because of the Anbar Awakening. He then backtracks again and says that the surge has failed because the Iraqis haven't met all of the goals that we have set for them. Like the blind men, Obama seems to be concentrating on the small parts and ignoring the whole.
This article is a pretty good analysis of why the Surge has succeeded. It was not just more troops, it was their method of employment that shifted everything. It allowed for the continuance of the Anbar Awakening, and at the same time provided the necessary impetus for Sadr to figure out that he was going nowhere fast if he continued his Mahdi Army operations.
It must be disappointing for the Democrats that their prized child (Defeat) is succumbing to the success of what they said could never happen.