It's been an Iraq-progress buzzword, seemingly synonymous with the word success: Anbar. On the hill last week we heard it countless times, and by week's end if it hadn't entered your consciousness somehow, you must've been spending lots of time under a rock (OK, that's a little harsh... but you'd have to be somewhere with no news radio, no internet, and no newspaper headlines). Anyway, while we were covering day two of the Petraeus testimony, NPR's Tom Bowman mentioned a gentleman he said had a great story about how Anbar got to its current, reportedly more hopeful state: Army Colonel Sean MacFarland. He was there, and instrumental in turning the region around. Scott tracked him down, and today he'll tell us how it's possible that once-dangerous cities like Ramadi and Fallujah are now, though not perfectly safe, certainly less scary.
Blog Of The Nation
The pollster interviewed was clearly in over his head. All the indicators are that Anbar is a success -- just look at the reduction in casualties against the coalition and the increase in al-Qaeda casualties. That sounds like success, but he would rather look at his survey than the reality. Let the evidence that his survey is flawed be damned.
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