The Guardian, in contrast, posted a clear-eyed video account of Iraqis in "the most dangerous province turning on al Qaeda." Their report was taken from a late winter broadcast by UK's Channel 4 News, whose host, Jon Snow, was criticized recently in Standpoint for openly declaring and exercising his own left-wing bias. (For the record, I'm a life-long Democrat and I voted for Barack Obama in this year's primary.)

Instrumental in the change noted by the Guardian, and last week (under pressure from McCain) by Mr. Obama, was Army Colonel Sean MacFarland. Two years ago, on September 29, 2006, MacFarland briefed the media on the fruits of his brigade's implementation of a counter-insurgency strategy in Anbar province. Of particular note were the efforts of Captain Travis Patriquin, an Arabic speaker with a sophisticated understanding of Iraqi tribal society, who had initiated discussions with US adversaries in Ramadi. Essentially, it was Patriquin, together with MacFarland, who convinced Sheikh Abdul Sittar Bezea al- Rishawi, a young but senior tribal sheikh, son of the chief of the abu Risha clan, to expel the al Qaeda insurgents they had been hosting and to join sides with the Iraqi police and army. Sheikh Sittar's effort lead to other sheikhs, and then many others. This was the beginning the Sahawat al-Anbar, or Anbar Awakening Council.

Patriquin was able to do this because he recognized common ground between them and because he gave his word that if the Sheikh would change sides, U.S. forces would stay around to guarantee his people protection from retaliation. The Sunni Tribes of Anbar had begun to chafe under a yoke that al Qaeda in Anbar (or aQA if you wish) had attempted to impose upon them. Beginning in 2004 jihadis who'd moved into the region as guests, along with local gangsters looking to legitimize themselves with the mantle of holy warrior, attempted to control daily life through adherence to their Salafist prescriptives, forced "marriages" upon local women, conscripted local children to fight for them, and in time began to commit atrocities against uncooperative but innocent other Muslims.

What Rep John Murtha, in November 2005, on the floor of the House accused US Marines of doing ("cold-blooded murder") in Haditha, and filmmaker Brian DePalma in his film "Redacted" depicted US soldiers doing nearby, aQA did over and over in Anbar Province. Foreign al Qaeda jihadis in Buquba perpetrated a massacre that went largely unreported. Michael Yon, the longest- serving journalist in Iraq, videotaped the exhumation of a dozen decapitated children, and weeks later reported that many similar sites were being unearthed nearby. After observing such practices, as well as the killing of hostages, the Anbar Sheikhs concluded that their jihadi guests, who were trying to establish an expanding Caliphate centered in their land, were in fact "un-Muslim."

This was, more to the point, a decisive judgment of bin Ladenism as not a religion but instead a perverted ideology. In the coming years, one should watch the people of Anbar, the only people ever to live under a bin Ladenist Caliphate-they may in fact now be the one population in the Middle East most inoculated against this ideology.

Captain Patriquin was killed in Ramallah by an IED on 6 December 2006. On hearing the news of his death, Sheikh Sittar broke down in tears. Captain Patriquin was a descendent of "Honest John" Hart, with whom he identified. Hart was a signer of the Declaration of Independence who during the Revolutionary War lost everything as he helped his country free itself. Reflecting Patriquin's rich mix of heritages, services for him were held at a Catholic Church, he was interred on December 15, 2006, with Full Military Honors, at Carty Cemetery in Dent Co, MO, and the Pawnee Nation honored him with songs in their native language and with gifts for his children.