The Lying Old Man Strikes Again

by Steve Soto

McCain is still insisting that he is correct and everyone else is wrong about the surge creating the Anbar Awakening.

McCain asserted he knew that and didn't commit a gaffe. "A surge is really a counterinsurgency made up of a number of components. ... I'm not sure people understand that `surge' is part of a counterinsurgency."

Speaking on CBS Tuesday of a Sunni sheik who approached Col. MacFarland, McCain said, "Because of the surge, we were able to go out and protect that sheik and others. And it began the Anbar awakening."

For the record, the Sunni awakenings began in the Summer of 2006, six months before Bush announced the escalation in Iraq over the objections of the Iraqis and the military brass in January 2007. The military officer McCain references didn't even meet the leader of the Awakening until after it was already under way in August 2006, months before the troop escalation was even discussed at the White House.

Lastly, Petraeus didn't even show up in Iraq as chief commander until early 2007, and he didn't even authorize American support for the Sunni groups across Iraq until June 2007, four months after the escalation was even announced and authorized. So how could Petraeus's counterinsurgency have been underway and creating the Awakening in 2006 when he wasn't there or even supporting it until almost a year later?

Update: A member of Petraeus's staff also confirms that the Awakening began long before our escalation or any effort on our part. McCain's simply a lying sack of shit.