Major Milestone in Iraq and For Tribe America!!!

This is truly amazing. If you asked Americans military folks in the field that this would happen a year and half ago They would have laughed. Go see this for more details.

Why did this happen. Well there are a ton of factors. The surge, the brave Iraqi people that did not ask to be on the front lines of the Worldwide war on terror but did not break.

However Michael Yon , a great Reporter in the field, summed it up best. He is quoted in a very good article that is in the Philadelphia Inquirer called Back Channels: Iraqis now know al-Qaeda, not U.S., is the real enemy He piece says in part:

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."

As Yon reported in the early days of the surge:

As with the Battle for Mosul, which I held in near monopoly for about five months during 2005, the most interesting parts of the Battle for Baqubah are unfolding after the major fighting ends. But as the guns cool, the media stops raining and starts evaporating, or begins making only short visits of a week or so.The big news on the streets today is that the people of Baqubah are generally ecstatic, although many hold in reserve a serious concern that we will abandon them again.

For many Iraqis, we have morphed from being invaders to occupiers to members of a tribe. I call it the “al Ameriki tribe,” or “tribe America.”I’ve seen this kind of progression in Mosul, out in Anbar and other places, and when I ask our military leaders if they have sensed any shift, many have said, yes, they too sense that Iraqis view us differently. In the context of sectarian and tribal strife, we are the tribe that people can — more or less and with giant caveats — rely on.

Most Iraqis I talk with acknowledge that if it was ever about the oil, it’s not now. Not mostly anyway. It clearly would have been cheaper just to buy the oil or invade somewhere easier that has more. Similarly, most Iraqis seem now to realize that we really don’t want to stay here, and that many of us can’t wait to get back home. They realize that we are not resolved to stay, but are impatient but to drive down to Kuwait and sail away.

Tribe American indeed.