Yesterday, prominent Iraq war proponents were featured at a panel at the American Enterprise Institute, including Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), a vocal supporter of President Bush’s escalation.

Graham cheerfully explained that in his eight visits to Iraq, he has never come back as optimistic as after his most recent one. Graham claimed political reconciliation is on the horizon and is now “all over the country.”

Within the next weeks, not months, there will be a major breakthrough on the benchmarks regarding political reconciliation. And after the last two weeks of being a reservist, you could see Sunnis and Shia and Kurds taking a second look at Iraq.

Watch a compilation of Graham’s remarks:

Using lofty phrases like “the surge has worked” and “the people are war weary,” Graham conveniently dodged empirical evidence to back up his assertion of reconciliation at “breakneck speed.”

Graham has placed himself at odds with every observer — including the Bush administration — of the Iraq war, all of whom see little to no political progress in Iraq:

Gen. Petraeus: “[T]angible political progress…has not worked out as we had hoped.” [9/7/07]

White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten: “[D]isappointment is the right word for…the Iraqi federal government.” [9/5/07]

Government Accountability Office: Iraqi government “has met only one of eight political benchmarks.” [9/4/07]

Congressional Research Service: “[T]he Iraqi government is in essential collapse.” [9/6/07]

National Intelligence Estimate: The government “will become more precarious over the next six to 12 months.” [8/23/07]

With Shi’as composing 75 percent of Baghdad today and 85 percent of the Iraqi national police, there is no near prospect for political reconciliation.

Despite these realities, Graham concluded his remarks at AEI — to loud applause — proclaiming that the United States is “kicking their ass,” a statement sure to make Bush proud.

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Yesterday, the Washington Times reported that Congressional leaders have begun calling the upcoming Iraq assessment “the Bush report” rather than crediting it to Gen. David Petraeus — a change that the paper and other right wingers claim is an effort to “undermine” Petraeus’ credibility. But, as TPM’s Greg Sargent points out, the legislation calling for the report specifically mandated that it come from the President, not the top commander in Iraq.

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U.S. force levels in Iraq, an “all-time high.” Maj. Gen. Richard Sherlock, director of operational planning for the Joint Staff, said that “the arrival of more combat brigades will temporarily push the total to as high as 172,000 over the coming months before it falls back to about 160,000 troops by November or December as other units leave.”

On ABC’s World News with Charles Gibson on Wednesday, Newsweek International editor Fareed Zakaria said that fears of genocide in Iraq after an American withdrawal are misplaced because large-scale ethnic cleansing has already occurred:

One of the dirty little secrets about Iraq is that Iraq has increasingly been ethnically cleansed. It’s sad to say, but the American Army has presided over the largest ethnic cleansing in the world since the Balkans. When people say bad things are going to happen if we leave, bad things have already happened. Where were you for the last four years?

Retired Gen. Jack Keane, one of the architects of Bush’s escalation plan, attacked Zakaria’s fact-based assertion. “You are really not describing what’s happening in Iraq. I mean, you’re in the past, to be quite frank about it,” said Keane before claiming the “surge” is working. Watch it:

Keane’s response to Zakaria has been heralded by the right wing. NewsBusters championed the “rebuke.” The Media Research Center, NewsBuster’s parent organization, approvingly reprinted the post in a cyber alert. The Washington Times’ Greg Pierce highlighted the exchange today.

None of Keane’s supporters note, however, that Zakaria is correct on the facts when he says “Iraq has increasingly been ethnically cleansed.”

Since the initial invasion of Iraq, more than 4.2 million Iraqis have left their homes, with roughly 2.2 million internally displaced while more than 2 million have fled to neighbouring states. Bush’s escalation, which Keane calls “very very encouraging,” has actually increased the pace of ethnic cleansing.

As the Center for American Progress’ Brian Katulis and Anita Sharma write today, the situation in Iraq now comprises “the biggest refugee crisis in the middle east since 1948.” But you won’t learn that reading right-wing diatribes against Zakaria.

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