Getting the History of the Surge Right Posted by Shawn Brimley

Just to add to Ilan's great post, the McCain campaign has constantly tried to oversimplify the war for political gain. McCain told Katie Couric:

McCain: I don't know how you respond to something that is as-- such a false depiction of what actually happened. Colonel McFarlane [phonetic] was contacted by one of the major Sunni sheiks. Because of the surge we were able to go out and protect that sheik and others. And it began the Anbar awakening. I mean, that's just a matter of history.

Sorry sir, that's just plain wrong. I'll let Colonel McFarland's article in the March/April issue of Military Review speak for itself:

Why We Succeeded

Clearly, a combination of factors, some of which we may not yet fully understand, contributed to this pivital success. As mentioned before, the enemy overplayed its hand and the people were tired of Al Qaeda. A series of assasinations had elevated younger, more aggressive tribal leaders to positions of influence. A growing concern that the U.S. would leave Iraq and leave the Sunnis defenseless against Al Qaeda and Iranian-supported militias made those younger leaders open to our overtures. Our willingness to adapt our plan based on the advice of the sheiks, our staunch and timely support for them in times of danger and need, and our ability to deliver on our promises convinced them that they could do business with us...

Seriously, if you are going to cite a military officer in a political debate, the least you can do is actually make sure you are citing his argument correctly.

 

Comments

[Craig Dunkerley]

McFarland's account of the Sunni motivation puzzles me. American forces were fighting in a bitter struggle against these Sunni tribes in al Anbar. Why would they be worried about the Americans leaving when that was their main goal (to drive the occupiers out of their country)? They'd still have the Shiite militias to deal with whether the Americans were still there or not. And the Sunnis were hardly defenseless against Al Qaeda. They far outnumber Al Qaeda and simply got sick of their indiscriminantly violent tactics. What I've read is that these disenchanted Sunnis figured the Americans were leaving sooner or later anyway (which was their first goal), so given Al Qaeda's outrageous tactics, and the fact that they were foreigners, and the fact that they had outlived their usefulness in opposing the Americans, why not take advantage of American money and arms while they were still around and get rid of Al Qaeda.

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