what began to turn things around in Iraq was, in 2006, after the Democrats won control of the Congress, the — what they called the Sunni insurgents became known as the Sons of Iraq — you had the Al Anbar awakening — said that they would team up with us to go after al-Qaida in Iraq, because al-Qaida in Iraq had been so violent, the things they had done. And they realized that we were not going to be there forever. This is the deal, that that has gotten the violence down in Al Anbar Province, which is where it was the heaviest. And then, even before the surge was completed, in February 2007, Sadr, Muqtada al-Sadr, told his militia to lay down their arms. MARGARET WARNER: But are you saying that the surge, the 20,000 additional combat forces, aren’t a significant factor in why things are more peaceful? LAWRENCE KORB: It was a factor, but was not nearly as big a factor as the Sunni insurgents laying down their arms, because the — we now call them the Sons of Iraq. We are paying them. We are training them. It was about 100,000 of them. But this is a deal we could have had in 2004. We didn’t take it. We took it in 2006, because — after the election.