IRAQIS SEE AL QAEDA, NOT THE U.S. AS THE REAL ENEMY

Don't expect Tom Brokaw to fill you in on this:

It seems Iraqis have decided that al-Qaeda, not America, is the "foremost enemy." That al-Qaeda, not America, had come to fight the people of Iraq. That al-Qaeda, not America, was the enemy of Muslims and their holy places.

Does this mean Iraqis want America encamped there forever? Of course not. Or that innocent life hasn't been lost as the result of U.S. actions? No.

But what irony. In the heart of the proposed capital of the radical Islamist caliphate, the antidote to jihadi propaganda has actually been exposure to the courage, decency and values of U.S. soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines.

Over the last five years, Iraqis have had the chance to see both sides in action: terrorists, extremists and militias that slaughter civilians at every opportunity vs. Americans who go out of their way to protect innocents, to help provide basic services, to rebuild communities.

Looking at those two contrary models, many Iraqis have thrown in with the Americans. Their reward? Decreasing levels of violence, a virtual end to the civil war, a certain level of protection against homicidal radicals, and the chance to put their country and lives back together.

For details on how this transformation occurred, start with the book Moment of Truth in Iraq, by former Green Beret and longtime embedded military blogger Michael Yon.

Yon describes al-Qaeda in Iraq as a gang that recruits young people with a "notion of masculinity in which the cruelest, most destructive, and bullying are seen as the toughest and thus the most admired."

In contrast, he writes, "What the American soldier at his best brings to counterinsurgency - by culture, by training, by long and honored tradition - is a different model in which the strongest - and most to be feared - is the one who protects and serves, who makes the people safe by putting himself at risk."

Yon shows the revulsion of Iraqi soldiers for al-Qaeda as they pull bodies of innocents - including decapitated children - from shallow graves in a village liberated from terrorists. "Look at what al-Qaeda has done to my country," one officer says.

Even the hard-core anti-American insurgent group, the 1920s Revolution Brigades, now fights alongside U.S. forces. One of their leaders told Yon: "Al-Qaeda is an abomination of Islam: cutting off heads, stealing people's money, kidnapping, and every type of torture."