iraqi reactions to the surge:
Some Iraqi legislators declared the U.S.-led plan to secure Baghdad a failure after an unprecedented suicide bomb attack on parliament Thursday capped a violent week in the capital.
(...) "The plan is 100% a failure. It's a complete flop," said Khalaf al-Ilyan, one of the three leaders of the Iraqi Accordance Front, which holds 44 seats in parliament. "The explosion means that instability and lack of security has reached the Green Zone."


(...) "If you add it all up, I don't see how you can conclude the surge is working," said Kenneth Katzman, an Iraq expert at the Congressional Research Service. "The confluence of evidence is that things are falling apart rather than coming together."
(...) Attacks in the Green Zone are rare. Visitors must pass through multiple checkpoints, usually manned by Iraqi troops, U.S. military personnel or private security contractors. The area is usually so secure that U.S. soldiers jokingly refer to it as "the ultimate gated community."