Non-Political Description
A significant increase in the number of military personnel in a specific military theater of operations. Specific to the U.S. military operations in Iraq in 2007, it’s about a 31,000 person increase in the previous US military troop level in the country. That’s roughly a 25% increase.

Political Description
A significant but temporary increase in the number of military personnel in a specific military theater with the intent of taking a decisive tactical position in a battle or war that will lead to the defeat of the opposing military forces.

Political Benefits
It allows someone to discuss troop levels without ever referring to the soldiers, sailors, and marines who comprise it.

“Surge” carries connotations of strength, power, forceful forward direction, and perhaps, breaking out of or away from something. Most importantly, it implies a short-term or temporary state.

The word “surge” is usually used in reference to things that can’t be stopped or prevented. There’s tidal surges, power surges, a quarterback surges across a goal line, a runner surges ahead of the pack, etc. Who wouldn’t want to be a part of a “surge”? More importantly, who would be against a “surge”?

Being against the surge carries the implication that you don’t want to be part of something that can’t be stopped.

Being against a surge implies weakness and perhaps a lack of confidence.

It frames the subject in such a way that you are either for against the surge as pre-defined. The “surge” then becomes a pre-packaged singular concept which precludes the notion that there may be other more nuanced options in the numbers and utilization of troop levels.

Reference Point
Self and others who share same political view. This euphemism has largely been adopted by the mainstream media and has also been largely adopted by opponents of the the troop increase in Iraq.

Countervailing Euphemism
Escalation. Implies a long-term or permanent state.

History
It doesn’t have a specific military definition historically but it has been used to describe a quick and significant increase in the operational tempo of a military organization to support increased mission requirements. This is not the context in which the term is currently being utilized in the press and by politicians.

According to the Washington Post:

It’s not clear who coined the word “surge” to describe troop increases. But it gained quick currency — that is, it surged — in November. Its first apparent journalistic use in reference to Iraq was in the New York Times on Nov. 21. A day after The Washington Post reported that the Pentagon was considering whether to deploy more troops, the Times said unnamed Pentagon officials had dubbed this “the surge option.”

Thereafter, variations of the phrase “surge option” appeared in newspaper stories and TV reports, then was quickly shorthanded to “surge.”

Example Usage
From Fox News

(Karl) Rove told Republicans in a speech this weekend that the White House “will be redefining the mission, because the goal of the surge was to get us to a place where we could redefine the mission, to take it to something close to what Baker-Hamilton says, which is… to help protect the territorial integrity of Iraq.” The ISG is led by former Secretary of State James Baker and former Indiana Rep. Lee Hamilton.

Bush administration officials have repudiated claims that the progress report to be delivered this week will show no progress toward meeting goals of the surge and benchmarks for political and legal progress by the Iraqi government.

…

“This is to be expected given the report is a preliminary snapshot of what are the early stages of the full surge,” the official said.

Despite the tempered remarks, three senior Republican Senate aides confirmed to FOX News that the mid-July progress report on the Iraq troop surge will report zero benchmarks achieved by the Iraqi government.

…

White House Press Secretary Tony Snow said Tuesday that the additional troops sent this year as part of a surge have just gotten in place and it would be unrealistic to expect major progress by now.

“There are a lot of discussions about everything,” he told NBC’s “Today” show. “We’re now about two weeks into having the surge operational. What we want to see now is whether the surge is working. We’re at the starting point now.”