SEN. GRAHAM == LYING WHORE

On Meet the Press (7/15/07), Liar Graham claimed that the turn around in Anbar province was due to the surge:

SEN. GRAHAM: Let me tell you why we have to beat al-Qaeda in Iraq before anything else falls into place. Number one, they’re an extremist group that have come to this country, Iraq, to destroy this effort at democracy. And they were able to thrive under the old strategy. They were able to occupy a territory in Anbar province. On this show in September last year, everyone said Anbar has—is gone. What did Petraeus do? He said, “Give me more troops, and I’m going to get out behind these walls, I’m going to live with the Iraqi army and police forces, and I’m going to try to align myself with people who reject al-Qaeda.” And it is working. I went to Ramadi on the Fourth of July, the 5th of July, I could not do that before.
So the surge is al-Qaeda’s worst nightmare. They have been diminished. The biggest success of the surge is not that we militarily pushed al-Qaeda out of Anbar, it’s that the people who lived in Anbar have rejected al-Qaeda and aligned themselves with us.

Graham conveniently forgets that the local sheiks and their tribesmen in Anbar were turning against Al Qaeda long before the surge was even announced. Here are just 2 reports:

The Associated Press State & Local Wire
December 30, 2006 Saturday 11:04 PM GMT
SECTION: STATE AND REGIONAL
LENGTH: 566
words
HEADLINE: Wilson says U.S. needs change of strategy in Iraq
BYLINE: By SUE MAJOR HOLMES, Associated Press Writer
DATELINE:
ALBUQUERQUE

Wilson acknowledged some senior officers in Iraq believe the U.S. should provide security, clear areas of insurgents and subsequently hold them. She said, however, she believes finding Iraqi leaders to secure and build their own communities is "much more likely to be effective."

For example, some Sunni leaders in Anbar Province have banded together to rid themselves of Al-Qaida and are recruiting their own young people into the region's police force, she said.


Federal News Service
December 27, 2006 Wednesday
SECTION: DEPARTMENT DEFENSE BRIEFING
LENGTH: 5870 words
HEADLINE: BRIEFING BY MAJOR GENERAL WILLIAM CALDWELL, SPOKESMAN AND DEPUTY CHIEF OF STAFF OF STRATEGIC EFFECTS FOR MULTINATIONAL FORCE IRAQ;
TOPIC: UPDATE ON SECURITY OPERATIONS IN IRAQ;
LOCATION: THE COMBINED PRESS INFORMATION CENTER, BAGHDAD, IRAQ

In Anbar province, scouts from the 3rd Brigade of the 1st Iraqi Army Division and coalition advisers struck 10 targets on the morning of December 22nd in the largest Iraqi army assault to date in that location. These ground and air assets were based upon intelligence provided by the Iraqi grassroots anti-insurgency group the Anbar Awakening.

Liar Graham then went on to say that we haven't looked at the consequences of leaving:

SEN. GRAHAM: ... But history will judge us, my friend, not when we left, but what we left behind. Do we leave a resurgent al-Qaeda that will kill every moderate who helped us? Do we empower Iran? Do they control the south of Iraq? Nobody ever asks the consequences, polls the consequences of this idea, just wash your hands of Iraq.

Dr. Thomas Fingar, the Deputy Director of National Intelligence for Analysis, has already thought about the Iran scenario and judged that it was unlikely to happen.