Despite the fact that all five Army brigades deployed for the surge won't be fully in place until June, Joint Chiefs chairman, Gen. Peter Pace, said by August commanders "should have a flavor of what's going on" with the security situation the troop increase is supposed to bring about.

"After having everybody there two or three months, we ought to have a pretty good sense of 'how goes it?' " Pace told reporters during an April 17 interview in Washington.

Despite a three-brigade increase in forces to secure Baghdad and curtail sectarian violence already, violence has remained steady, with a high-profile bombing in the Iraqi parliament casting a shadow over the security push.

Though sectarian killings have decreased in some areas, elements of al Qaeda have purportedly stepped into the gap, detonating suicide bombs and laying roadside ambushes seemingly unabated.

Pace said the multi-faceted security plan envisioned by coalition commander, Gen. David Petraeus, could begin to bear fruit on the military and political front first, with economic revitalization following close behind.

"We also ought to have a feeling for the other two very important parts of this surge, which is a surge in political action by the Iraqi government the potential for a surge in economics" by the end of summer, Pace said. "Clearly the economics would follow the security and governance."

Despite a requirement to issue a 90-day progress report on Iraq that provides U.S. lawmakers with a wide range of information, including statistics on attacks against U.S. forces, sectarian killings and Iraqi army readiness levels, Pace believes a much more "simple, straightforward" calculation should be made to measure success or failure of the U.S. security plan.

"Do [the Iraqis] feel better about today than they did yesterday?" Pace explained. "And do they think tomorrow is going to be better than today."

"When the answer to both those questions is 'yes' then the impact of the military, governance and economics will have had the impact" commanders intended, he added.

The JCS chairman also waded into the controversy over a White House initiative to create a so-called "War Czar" to oversee war policy and Middle East security strategy. The position is being created to relieve National Security Advisor Steve Hadley from the Iraq oversight role and free him up to concentrate on the myriad other strategic threats confronting the United States, Pace said.

"This person would do, on a daily basis for the president, for the national security council, what Steve would do himself if he could focus solely on Iraq and Afghanistan," Pace explained. "That makes good sense to me."

Pace said he had spoken to retired Marine Gen. John "Jack" Sheehan to see if he was interested in the job, confirming that the White House was considering the former general as a candidate for the Iraq war czar. The Washington Post reported April 11 that three top former generals had rejected the call, including Army Gen. Jack Keane - who helped devise the current "surge" strategy - and former NATO commander, Air Force Gen. Joe Ralston.

"I think it's a very helpful position to have that somebody can sift through the implementation of the decisions that are being made and to be able to say 'this is on track, this is not, we need to make some adjustments here,' " Pace said.

Learn more about Military service opportunities.

Sound Off...What do you think? Join the discussion.

Copyright 2009 Military.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

More Military Headlines

• Pentagon Seeks More Power From Vehicles
• Underway at Last!
• Torn Between Two Loves
• Iraqis Taking the Lead? Yes and No
• Cool Under Fire