Anbar Awakening successful because of local tribal leadership and American troops, but mostly American troops.
July 24th, 2008
This chicken & egg argument about the Surge vs the Anbar Awakening, and how this is a major McCain gaffe is truly bizarre. No matter how desperately the Obama camp wants to steal this issue from McCain–and no matter how screechy the Obama fanboi sounds in the MSNBC message board–it is simply not factual to say the Awakening happened without American involvement! Technically, it may have happened before the first Surge brigades set foot in Anbar, but guess what? The tribal sheiks that provided momentum in the early, dark days of the Awakening were already working with American troops.