And Don't Forget The Smoking Ban...

clipped from www.captainsquartersblog.com He points to Anbar, as do most of the war's supporters. In 2006, Anbar only produced 1,000 recruits for the local police forces. Already this year, over 12,000 have volunteered for duty in Anbar, showing that the locals and the tribes are committed to securing Iraq. The opportunity comes at a curious but providential juxtaposition of events. General David Petraeus had finally implemented the correct counterintelligence strategy at almost the precise moment that al-Qaeda overplayed its shari'a enforcement. The final straw for most Iraqis was a ban on smoking on top of all the brutality they had already endured from the terrorists. Even the nationalist insurgents saw the American troops as preferable to the radical Islamists at that point. Graham believes that we already have the momentum for real reform and stability, although it will take a while to get the Sunnis to buy into democracy. All we need to do is keep clearing ground while the Iraqis stabilize from the ground up.