Sheikh: "You Have Liberated a People"

From the Full Story at the Wall Street Journal:

""We liberated the Anbar, we defeated al Qaeda by denying it religious cover," Sheikh Abdul Sattar Abu Reisha said with a touch of pride and impatience. This is the dashing tribal leader who has emerged as the face of the new Sunni accommodation with American power. I had not been ready for his youth (born in 1971), nor for his flamboyance. Sir David Lean, the legendary director of "Lawrence of Arabia," would have savored encountering this man. There is style, and an awareness of it, in Abu Reisha: his brown abaya bordered with gold thread, a neat white dishdasha, and a matching head-dress. "Our American friends had not understood us when they came, they were proud, stubborn people and so were we. They worked with the opportunists, now they have turned to the tribes, and this is as it should be. The tribes hate religious parties and religious fakers."

The Iraqi people understand the dynamic. The Iraqi religious leaders understand the dynamic. Why is it that the American left won't understand the dynamic? Al Qaeda doesn't represent Islam, and it doesn't represent the Iraqi people.

The surge is devastating Al Qaeda.

We have made mistakes in Iraq. But we have such an opportunity to right them that we can't afford not to set things straight. We can win a great victory in Iraq if we have patience. Read the story above for yourself, and keep an open mind. The surge is succeeding.