It appears so. Check it out!

…and the media and Barack Obama are dead wrong.

Brought to us by the Weekly Standard’s John McCormack:

 As Frederick Kagan wrote in September 2007: “Anbari tribal leaders did begin to turn against AQI in their areas last year before the surge began, but not before Colonel Sean MacFarland began to apply in Ramadi the tactics and techniques that are the basis of the current strategy in Baghdad.”

If McCain was saying that Col. McFarland’s counterinsurgency approach “began the Anbar Awakening” then that’s pretty much on the mark. The “surge” after all is often shorthand for both the addition of U.S. troops as well as the adoption of a counterinsurgency strategy.

The whole post is pretty interesting, check it out.

So there’s this argument going on now as to whether we can attribute the ongoing success in Iraq to the “surge” strategy or whether it was simply a product of the domestic Anbar Awakening. The basic premise of the question is way off because the Sunnis who stood up to become the Sons of Iraq (SoI) that began the Anbar Awakening never would have done so unless they had know the US was coming over the hill with reinforcements.

But the media seems to think that they have caught Sen. McCain in some sort of foreign policy flub because he contends that the SoI would’t have been sustainable were it not for the surge in US troops. They point out that the additional surge troops did not arrive in country until after the SoI had begun to stand up. However, this ignores some fairly important facts. We had announced well before then that we were recommitting to securing Iraq, and we had begun to implement the new strategy surrounding the additional surge troops before they arrived. Both of these things provided a pretty strong signal to the SoI that we weren’t about to abandon them (like Barack Obama would have done and still plans to do), and that they were safe to begin operations against AQI.

Not everyone in the media seems to have bought into the liberal line of attack however. Joe Scarborough over at MSNBC concludes that history is on McCain’s side:

…it all makes sense now:

Here are a couple of great videos/ads coming out in the last few days that I haven’t had time to post on (been moving apartments):

The Obama Iraq Documentary: Whatever the Politics Demand

Troop Funding Ad - Played during the run-up to the “Great Obama Overseas Adventure”

“Pump” Ad - Placing the blame for high gas prices where it belongs - on the shoulders of Democrats who oppose drilling for more oil WHILE also pursuing alternative energy sources.

Came across this site for a Laura Morask a Republican running for a judges seat in Cook County, IL (just south of where I grew up).  I like the way she pulls google maps into her site, it caught my eye. More importantly, I think its really important that local races embrace the netroots movement on our side, thats the only way to really build the kind of online activism we need.  Here is a site thats didnt cost a lot of money, but they invested time into making the content look and feel good to a variety of users, and they added some nice features tha make it a good user experience. Very cool, good luck Laura! 

The internet is starting to buzz with news of Where Is The Red?  The Kentucky Enquirer has a story about the WITR crew helping Republican campaigns in the northern part of the state.  It includes an interesting quote showing how much the campaigns appreciate the help:

“We were excited by the opportunity to show this group of college Republicans around the 4th district and to have them volunteer their time by knocking doors and attending several county fairs in the area,” said Davis spokesman Jeremy Hughest. “As always, Congressman Davis is committed to running a grassroots campaign and we are happy to have these college students be a part of it.”

Where Is The Red  was also featured on “Citizen Tube”—YouTube’s politics blog.  Check it out here.

Check out this handy PDF to better run your chapter or state using storm.  State Chair Guide to Storm

Over at OpenLeft.com, we see Matt Stoller (icon of the liberal netroots) is depressed about Barack Obama. He’s depressed because Barack Obama’s lead is slipping. He’s depressed because Barack Obama has recently soldout on a whole host of issues to pander to the political center. And he’s depressed because he seems to be realizing (like many other formerly enthusiastic supporters) that Barack Obama is just another typical politician.

My favorite lines:

Don’t expect great things from Obama.  Don’t expect anything, really, except blame when he screws up.  It’s our fault, since we didn’t clap hard enough.

Still, there’s the Supreme Court, so I’ll probably end up giving and volunteering at some point later.  Not now, though, I don’t like being lectured by Ivy League wankers who tell me it’s my fault when Obama lies to me.  That’ll have to blow over.

Ah, I love the Looney Left. Apparently, they don’t seem to love Barack Obama as much as they used to.

H/T @PatrickRuffini

Whereisthered.com is getting more and more attention everyday! Today, they were the featured channel on YouTube. The link might not show that after today, so I have pasted a screenshot below: