Despite trumpeting the success of the occupation in Iraq all along and now trying to claim otherwise, John McCain on this morning's Face the Nation explained that reason the surge hasn't resulted in the political reconciliation it was supposed to is because "there are no Thomas Jeffersons in Iraq."

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Of course he prefaced this new excuse by again repeating what seems to be the basis his entire campaign these days: his revisionist history of his stance on the war all along.

McCain: When I took my position on the surge -- when I was the only one of all these people around me that said you got to do the surge and four years ago that the Rumsfeld strategy was doomed to failure and it was terrible --

How long is the media going to let McCain get away with making that false claim? Despite his repeating it over and over, the truth is that McCain has been consistently trumpeting the success of the Iraq war strategy.

“It’s clear that the end is very much in sight.” [ABC, 4/9/03]

“This is a mission accomplished. They know how much influence Saddam Hussein had on the Iraqi people, how much more difficult it made to get their cooperation.” [This Week, ABC, 12/14/03]

“I’m confident we’re on the right course.” [ABC News, 3/7/04]

“I think the initial phases of it were so spectacularly successful that it took us all by surprise.” [CBS, 10/31/04]

“I do think that progress is being made in a lot of Iraq. Overall, I think a year from now, we will have made a fair amount of progress if we stay the course. If I thought we weren’t making progress, I’d be despondent.” [The Hill, 12/8/05] ... (more)

The fact is, besides the temporary inevitable security improvements wherever there was an influx of more troops, sooner than later the surge is going to end out of necessity, the draw-down has already begun, and any prospects of reaching a political reconciliation continue to grow more and more dim.

Dec 2, 07: The detention by US troops of the bodyguards and son of Adnan Dulaimi, the leader of the largest Sunni Arab bloc in parliament on Thursday night has now led to a walk-out of the 44 members of the Iraqi Accord Front. ...(more)

If only Iraq had a Thomas Jefferson.