In his September 16 column, Washington Post columnist David Broder stated that Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) “has been an outspoken advocate of the surge strategy -- claiming real success on the ground and urging its continuation.” He later quoted the senator as saying, “I want reality-based policy [on Iraq].” But Broder ignored the fact that in April, Graham touted “signs of progress” in Iraq following his April 1 visit to Baghdad's Shorja market. However, soon thereafter, it was reported that Graham's delegation had traveled to the market in armored military vehicles while under heavy guard by more than 100 U.S. troops and five helicopters.

In a column headlined “Lindsey Graham's Realism,” Broder wrote, “A Republican with a notable record of independence, Graham has been an outspoken advocate of the surge strategy -- claiming real success on the ground and urging its continuation.” He went on to characterize the questions Graham asked of Gen. David Petraeus and U.S. ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker during their September 11 testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee -- in which Graham asked if staying in Iraq to achieve a national security aim was “worth” the $9 billion and the loss of 60 lives a month -- as “surprising.” Broder added:

When I talked with Graham on Thursday, he said he had asked those questions because “I am sick and tired of people posing choices between the two extremes; I want reality-based policy. [Senate Majority Leader] Harry Reid is as bad as Rumsfeld was in rejecting reality. He said in April that the war is lost, and he refuses to accept anything else."

But Graham said that he thought Crocker was “making a pretty major statement that the clock is running out on the Maliki government -- and we can have an effect on it by what we do here.”

“There are alternatives,” he said -- Shiite political leaders who are willing, for example, to tour the Baghdad jails with Graham and be photographed with Sunnis who are protesting the imprisonment of so many of their coreligionists. “The good news,” Graham said, “is that Kurds and Sunnis and Shiites are ready to play politics. Judges feel more secure because of the surge, and that is important, because all of them have experienced rough justice.

”What we do can affect the outcome. But if we don't see progress on two of the three big issues -- oil revenues, de-Baathification, provincial elections -- in the next 90 days, it may not happen. And Iraq could be a failed state."

As Media Matters for America documented, however, a previous claim of progress in Iraq by Graham came under criticism after reports came out about the circumstances surrounding his claims. Following an April 1 visit to a Baghdad market, Graham declared “signs of progress” in Iraq and claimed: “I bought five rugs for five bucks. People were engaging.” However, according to an April 3 New York Times article, “Ali Jassim Faiyad, the owner of an electrical appliances shop in the market” claimed that "[t]hey paralyzed the market when [Graham and other lawmakers] came." The Times reported that Faiyad also said of Graham's visit, “This was only for the media.” Reuters reported that snipers returned to the market area one day after Graham's visit.

Moreover, Broder uncritically quoted Graham's assertion that Harry Reid “said in April that the war is lost and refuses to accept anything else,” without noting that Graham mischaracterized what Reid had said. As Media Matters documented, during an April 19 press conference, Reid said that the Iraq war “is lost” and later stated that the day before, he had told President Bush “what he needed to hear” about the war. He then said that the only way the war could be won is “diplomatically, politically, and economically.” In addition, during a speech on the Senate floor the same day, Reid reiterated his stance, advocating a “political solution” in Iraq and asserting that “there is still a chance to change course.” Media Matters also documented that Broder himself misrepresented Reid's comments in his April 26 column.