In January 2007, President Bush announced plans for a troop surge in Iraq. He announced that 20,000 additional troops would be deployed in order to boost the US presence to combat insurgent attacks and prevent Iraq from becoming "a hot bed for terrorism." Then, on May 8, 2007, the Pentagon announced that 35,000 additional troops would be deployed in order to support Bush's surge throughout the year.

On September 10-11, 2007 General David Petraeus testified on Capitol Hill in what the media has labeled "Petraeus' Report," which offered a detailed account of the status of the War in Iraq. Speaking to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Petraeus explained that militarily, the "surge" has achieved its goals of "reducing sectarian killings within Baghdad and Iraq as a whole." General Petraeus also made a point of stating that troop numbers could be reduced by 30,000 by July 2008 – a number which President Bush verified on Thursday, September 13, 2007.

The following chart provides the overall sentiment breakdown of the blogosphere about the troop surge/Petraeus Report for the period from 09/05/2007 to 09/11/2007:

73% of bloggers spoke negatively about the troop surge/Petraeus Report this week, and just 25% blogged positively. A mere 2% of bloggers expressed neutral sentiment, exhibiting the fact that bloggers are quite decisive concerning the troop surge, as compared to other political topics.

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