According to Schumer, the Anbar Awakening is a result of the Marine's inability to protect the residents from Al Qaida. 

There are many problems with Schumer's revisionist history--mainly that a lot of the tribal fighters working with the Marines and Soldiers are former insurgents.

I've been on missions with tribal fighters.  I've broken bread with them.  I've asked them why they started standing up against Al Qaida and the insurgents. 

The answer always involves the brutality of Al Qaida.  Never once have I heard an Iraqi say they turned on the insurgents because the coalition could not protect them from the insurgents. 

Which brings us back to LTC Keaveny's point.  If a former insurgent is now working with the coalition--how is it possible that an insurgent joined the Awakening for protection from the insurgents? 

The second major error in Schumer's revisionist history is that he is trying to rewrite a claim no one should be making--that the surge caused the Anbar Awakening. 

The Awakening started around this time last year--way before the surge was ever announced.  In fact, Joshua Partlow of the WaPo wrote on January 27th 2007: 

"The military says it has found a welcome ally in the tribal sheiks. U.S. commanders trace the formation of the Awakening to Aug. 21 last year, when Abu Ali Jassim, a sheik who had encouraged his kinsmen to join the provincial security forces, was killed by members of al-Qaeda in Iraq. Instead of turning over the body to be buried, al-Qaeda hid it in a field, violating Islamic tenets calling for a swift burial, said Maj. Thomas A. Shoffner, operations officer for the 1st Brigade, 1st Armored Division." 

But the Awakening was being formed even prior to August 21st, 2007.  As noted by Partlow, the Sheik was murdered for encouraging tribesmen to join the Provisional Security Forces.  Which would mean some kind of Awakening was already happening earlier in the Summer. 

In other places Battalion Commanders like Lt. Col. James McGrath of 3/6 had to coax it along.  At the time I was with 3/6, having your own group of off the books tribal fighters wasn't in vouge so McGrath organized them and kept them going as a 'concerned citizens' group under the direction of the Habbaniyah and Khalidiyah police. 

The Awakening in many parts of the Euphrates river valley was a product of innovative and entreprenurial commanders like McGrath. 

But even the spontaneous awakenings like Shihabi rely heavily on the coalition for supplies and support. 

Furthermore, if the Anbar Awakening is evidence of a U.S. military failure--lets have more of those failures.