It's looking less and less likely that more American troops will be coming home after this summer. The architect of the surge isn't yet ready to proclaim, in the words of his commander in chief, "mission accomplished," and Gen. David Petraeus has persuaded his boss at the Pentagon to hold off troop withdrawals so he can evaluate the impact of the surge on violence in Baghdad and surrounding areas. That may be the responsible thing for the general to do, but it puts additional stress on a fatigued, battle-weary force. U.S. troops have repeatedly been asked to serve and serve again in a war that they should never have been sent to fight. They deserve to come home.

Too many soldiers are on their second and third tours, and high-ranking officers overseeing the Army and Marine Corps have raised concerns about the 15-month tours now expected of soldiers, suggesting they should be no longer that 12 months. Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates had publicly supported reducing U.S. troops in Iraq to about 100,000, less than the pre-surge total of about 130,000, by year's end. But this week he reversed course and said a pause in the withdrawal would give General Petraeus the time he needs to assess the impact of fewer troops on the ground. President Bush has to sign off on such a move, but it's unlikely he would overrule his chief ground commander, who has enabled him to claim some success, however episodic, in this disastrous war.

What's happening here is that the gains from the so-called surge - an infusion of U.S. troops in the country to curtail violence - are flattening. Partnering with Sunni tribesmen in the fight against al-Qaida has reduced violence - commanders report a 75 percent decline in attacks since June. But insurgents are regrouping and responding, and post-surge violence, though more sporadic, hasn't spared American soldiers, their Sunni allies or citizen groups backing them.

Sunni fighters, who are paid a daily fee by the Americans, have had little success in getting real jobs with the government, which had been their hope. More troubling is the lack of progress on the political reforms that the surge was designed to foster.

And that's a problem not even General Petraeus can fix.