tenuous, temporary and illusory (not my words)

but certainly how i feel and what i believe is the truth. what are those words describing? the effect of our presence in pockets in iraq. sure the figures may go down here and there. but you know sure as shite when they move to another place (and of course they have to move SOMETIME), that first place falls to ruins again. violence, torture, death. what hath king george wrought???

Weighing the 'Surge'
The U.S. War in Iraq Now Hinges on the Counterinsurgency Strategy Of Gen. Petraeus. The Results Have Been Tenuous.

By Sudarsan Raghavan Washington Post Foreign Service
BAGHDAD -- Nearly every week, American generals and politicians visit Combat Outpost Gator, nestled behind a towering blast wall in the Dora market. They arrive in convoys of armored Humvees, sometimes accompanied by helicopter gunships, to see what U.S. commanders display as proof of the effectiveness of a seven-month-long security offensive, fueled by 30,000 U.S. reinforcements. Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. military leader in Iraq, frequently cites the market as a sign of progress.
"This is General Petraeus's baby," said Staff Sgt. Josh Campbell, 24, of Winfield, Kan., as he set out on a patrol near the market on a hot evening in mid-August..........
....................If there is one indisputable truth regarding the current offensive, it is this: When large numbers of U.S. troops are funneled into areas, security improves. But the numbers only partly describe the reality on the ground. Visits to key U.S. bases and neighborhoods in and around Baghdad show that recent improvements are sometimes tenuous, temporary, even illusory.....................