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Abstract In analyzing the "Surge" in Iraq during 2007 and 2008, the article contends that the campaign contributed greatly to Iraq's stabilizing, and did so because the "surge of ideas" facilitated crucial variables: population separation, both by U.S. forces and from ethnic cleansing; local Sunni insurgents' reconciliation; a new, "networked" Special Operations Forces campaign, and a politically self-reinforcing impression that the United States had recommitted to Iraq. Ultimately, however, the essay concludes, the Surge needed to be more ambitious to be endurable. In January 2007 President George W. Bush announced the "new way forward in Iraq."1 He deployed 30,000 additional troops, replaced the commander, and endorsed a new counterinsurgency strategy. The campaign that followed became known as the Surge: these five additional brigades fanned out to Baghdad and neighboring provinces; and a "surge of ideas" shifted the goal to protecting the Iraqi population, instead of transitioning responsibility for security to Iraqi forces. The strategy, President Bush announced, was to reduce the violence enough so that "daily life will improve, Iraqis will gain confidence in their leaders, and the government will have the breathing space it needs to make progress in other critical areas."2 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]