Iraq: the "surge" is working to accomplish . . . what?

Juan Cole asks the question:

If someone came to you six years ago and said that for only $2 trillion, you could have for your colony a burned out country, a failed state, and a semi-permanent incubator of terrorism and hatred against the US, would you have ponied up the money? That's what you've got, and that is what it cost you.

So what does the answer to that question say we should do now? Here's what the proponents of the surge say:

What the snake oil merchants like Fred Kagan and Bill Kristol . . . are really saying is that if you just give them $2 trillion more, and are willing to expend another 12,000 killed and wounded American young people, boy do they have a deal on a neo-colony for you.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice-- can't get fooled again.

Yet we continue to listen to these guys to resolve the problem they created for us. Why would they continue to be given a national platform when they were so utterly, totally wrong in the first place? There's something really, really sick and disgraceful about that.