these were all controlled by al qaeda and iraq and by the sunni insurgents? >> absolutely. >> and here in baghdad, you're talking about most of the city? >> most of the city was definitely controlled by the al qaeda, by the sunni insurgents. and the city was just hell. >> now take us to the map on the right. >> well, the surge began in january and february of 2007. and quite remarkably, by the end of 2007, we began to achieve some tangible success. and by 2008 we had driven the al qaeda out of all of the regions you see on the map to the left because they are now gone from baghdad of any consequence from fallujah to ramadi. in the latter part of 2008, we were actually able to drive them out of the last major city and that was mosul. al qaeda in 2008 and 2009 in their own communications to each