The outgoing US ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, has confirmed whispered rumors that the United States military is participating in talks with Sunni militias in an effort to turn the militias against Al-Qaeda groups operating in Iraq. The potential alliance between militias and the US military may signal a shift in the mindset of the Sunni militias that have been responsible for much of the continued violence in Iraq. For years the militias have been reluctant to work with the US military because their chief demand had been the immediate withdrawal of American forces from Iraq. This new alliance is possible evidence that the goal of the militias has shifted to fighting Al-Qaeda and ridding Iraq of the terrorist organization.

Al-Qaeda has been responsible for series of attacks in the Al-Anbar province of Iraq. Al-Qaeda has been actively intimidating Iraqis in the Anbar region through murder and kidnappings. US and Iraqis forces have launched an aggressive operation in the region to combat Al-Qaeda groups. An alliance with the Sunni militias would be an additional weapon in the fight against Al-Qaeda and its efforts to undermine security in Iraq.

What is so interesting about this alliance is that is demonstrates how far Iraqis are willing to go to defend their newly free country. That same determination has not been demonstrated by the political leaders of this nation. Sunni Iraqis who are feeling excluded form the Shiites dominated government and who still want the US to leave Iraq, are willing to set aside their differences in order to fight against the real enemy…Islamofascists who see a US defeat in Iraq as an opportunity to further their war against freedom and impose their own twisted views on the rest of the world.

It has taken years of violence, but perhaps this conversion of certain militias is a sign that the Iraqi people are finally prepared to take responsibility for the security of their country. Sunni militias that have fought so aggressively against our troops are turning their weapons against the terrorists who have moved into Iraq. Al-Qaeda is operating in Iraq, undermining our efforts, prolonging the violence and the suffering of the Iraqi people for its own perverted ideological goals.

As Americans, we must acknowledge that it is both eye opening and disturbing that our military can get the support and cooperation they need to defeat terrorists bent on our destruction from their former enemies, but not from the political body that sent them to Iraq in the first place.