So The Surge, which was the successor to Operation Together Forward II, and announced as such last December, and implemented as the "Baghdad Security Plan" aka Operation Fardh al-Qanoon with subcomponents Arrowhead Ripper and Phantom Thunder, all evolving over the last 6 months, actually only began two weeks ago. So says the White House Press Office (Scott Stanzel) --
MR. STANZEL: The shift in strategy occurred with the new way forward, which is now two weeks underway. And that was a dramatic shift in strategy, based on the input that the President received from commanders on the ground and leaders in Washington. That operation is now just two weeks underway in its full array of troops.
So the President believes that this June -- or, July 15th report will be an opportunity for an initial snapshot of how that is going; just an initial snapshot after a few weeks. September 15th is another time to provide an assessment and receive some recommendations from commanders on the ground.
Let's note that Congress debated this issue for 100 days. They debated the Iraq war funding for 100 days. Then they put in place, in passing that, they put in place two opportunities to get those updates: July 15th and then two months later on September 15th. So we are just now in the beginning phases of that.
Note the particular disengenuousness of trying to use the Congressional debate on the Surge as having stopped the clock, when -- highlighting a structural flaw in the US Constitution -- the President went ahead and put the troops in place without congressional approval.
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