The surge of 30,000 additional U.S. troops to Iraq, announced by President Bush on Jan. 10, apparently only officially began on June 15.

White House spokesman Tony Snow said today that the U.S. is "12 days into the most significant military action in a very long time."

The reason for the six-month time lag between announcement and official start is, technically, that it took that long for all five brigades of combat troops to arrive in Iraq.

But the first soldiers to head over as part of the surge began arriving in Iraq soon after the president's announcement.

-- Jon Ward, White House correspondent, The Washington Times