Petraeus himself proved that Anbar got better before surge began

Back in January, before the Bush troop surge began, David Petraeus bragged about the progress in Anbar Province:

You’ve seen it, I know, in Anbar province, where it has sort ofgone back and forth. And right now there appears to be a trend in thepositive direction where sheikhs are stepping up and they do want to beaffiliated with and supported by the U.S. Marines and Army forceswho are in Anbar province. That was not the case as little as perhapssix months ago, or certainly before that. [Senate Armed ServicesCommittee hearing, 1/23/07]

Oh, and by the way, we are not surging in Anbar anyway.  So that pretty much puts a dent in the claim that sending more troops into Anbar calmed the situation.  Anbar was a tactical success, not a strategic success.