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."

MICHAEL YON: LET'S SURGE SOME MORE

Fascinating news coming from Iraq:

I may well have spent more time embedded with combat units in Iraq than any other journalist alive. I have seen this war – and our part in it – at its brutal worst. And I say the transformation over the last 14 months is little short of miraculous.

The change goes far beyond the statistical decline in casualties or incidents of violence. A young Iraqi translator, wounded in battle and fearing death, asked an American commander to bury his heart in America. Iraqi special forces units took to the streets to track down terrorists who killed American soldiers. The U.S. military is the most respected institution in Iraq, and many Iraqi boys dream of becoming American soldiers. Yes, young Iraqi boys know about "GoArmy.com."

Iraqis came to respect American soldiers as warriors who would protect them from terror gangs. But Iraqis also discovered that these great warriors are even happier helping rebuild a clinic, school or a neighborhood. They learned that the American soldier is not only the most dangerous enemy in the world, but one of the best friends a neighborhood can have.

Some people charge that we have merely "rented" the Sunni tribesmen, the former insurgents who now fight by our side. This implies that because we pay these people, their loyalty must be for sale to the highest bidder. But as Gen. Petraeus demonstrated in Nineveh province in 2003 to 2004, many of the Iraqis who filled the ranks of the Sunni insurgency from 2003 into 2007 could have been working with us all along, had we treated them intelligently and respectfully. In Nineveh in 2003, under then Maj. Gen. Petraeus's leadership, these men – many of them veterans of the Iraqi army – played a crucial role in restoring civil order. Yet due to excessive de-Baathification and the administration's attempt to marginalize powerful tribal sheiks in Anbar and other provinces – including men even Saddam dared not ignore – we transformed potential partners into dreaded enemies in less than a year.

Then al Qaeda in Iraq, which helped fund and tried to control the Sunni insurgency for its own ends, raped too many women and boys, cut off too many heads, and brought drugs into too many neighborhoods. By outraging the tribes, it gave birth to the Sunni "awakening." We – and Iraq – got a second chance. Powerful tribes in Anbar province cooperate with us now because they came to see al Qaeda for what it is – and to see Americans for what we truly are.

Michael Yon is author of the just-published "Moment of Truth in Iraq" (Richard Vigilante Books). He has been reporting from Iraq and Afghanistan since December 2004.

Let's Surge Some More

I advise all of you to read as much of Yon's stuff as you can. No journalist knows more about the situation in Iraq.