So, if the Surge is working....

And that point is clearly debatable as you will see, what happens when the troops from that operation are pulled out?

As Iraqi refugees begin to stream back to Baghdad, American military officials say the Iraqi government has yet to develop a plan to absorb the influx and prevent it from setting off a new round of sectarian violence.

Well, there is always the Baghdad neighbourhood watch program that was set up by General Petraeus' command. Two weeks ago it was reported to have 77,000 members.

The military also lowered its tally of how many Iraqis had joined neighborhood watch groups. The new figure for Concerned Local Citizens, as the military calls the volunteers, is 60,321. The previous estimate of 77,000 erroneously combined the number of volunteers who are currently serving with those who had expressed a willingness to join.

An over-estimate of 17,000 people? Think nothing of it. It happens all the time.

No. The thing that will set the pot to boiling over is this:

“All these guys coming back are probably going to find somebody else living in their house,” said Col. William Rapp.

I wonder what the good colonel believes that will lead to?

And who does the US have dealing directly with the flood of Iraqi returning refugees? Brace yourself.

Ahmad Chalabi, a Shiite politician and former Iraqi exile who made common cause with the Americans against Saddam Hussein, has been charged with developing a plan to provide services.

Oh yeah! That'll work.

Colonel Rapp voiced the hope that confrontations might be avoided by building new homes for returning Iraqis instead of forcing all of the squatters to leave. “It is probably going to be resolved with new housing construction as opposed to wholesale evictions and resettlement,” he said.

Construction?! Yeah... no one's tried that yet.