Two prominent US political scholars just back from Iraq said Monday the US troop surge strategy was making strides in some areas, but warned the Iraqi government was making "zero" progress.

The findings by independent Brookings Institution analysts Michael O’Hanlon and Kenneth Pollack, who have recently criticized White House strategy, furthered enflamed the heated political debate in Washington over Iraq.

The Democratic-led House of Representatives is due this week to hold more symbolic votes on bringing US troops home, in the latest of a string of so-far unsuccessful attempts to dictate President George W.  Bush’s war strategy.

Pollack and O’Hanlon returned from eight days of meetings with US generals, diplomats and Iraqis saying they were more hopeful than they had expected.

They noted progress in the US battle against Al-Qaeda in Iraq in western Al-Anbar province, and said there had been impressive stabilization in the northern cities of Tal-Afar and Mosul.   ……more