Are Putz and the Victory Caucusers credible advocates for the surge?

(updated below)

Whether the surge is working or not is hard to say. Violence seems to be down in some places and up in others. What is clear is that the people touting the success of the surge -- namely the Putzes, the Hew Hughitts, the Powerlines, the Malkins --- have zero credibility with which to do so.

Consider this link to Max Boot by Putz.

Here’s the perspective the press isn’t providing: We are in the middle of a tough, bloody war in Iraq. Throughout 2006, the war was going very badly, especially in Baghdad. Large chunks of the city were subject to a bloody campaign of ethnic cleansing, murder, and terrorism. Sunni families fled. Markets closed. Normal life ground to a halt.

Throughout 2006, Putz and his minions were saying the complete opposite: they insisted that we were winning, that war critics were just defeatist Bush-haters and traitors, that the media covering stories about "ethnic cleansing, murder, and terrorism" were pro-terrorist propagandists, linked to every post they could find that "proved" conditions in Iraq were just splendid -- all the while defending Bush and Rumsfeld's prosecution of the war.

Do they think we've forgotten how wrong they were?

The only way we'll know if the surge is working is if a staunch critic like Murtha tells us it's working. Until then, Putz and his crowd are wasting their time.

UPDATE

For more on this, see Americablog and Greenwald.