Ever herd of the Awakening Council? Many are crediting it with the recent decision to transfer responsibility for the security of Anbar Province to the Iraqi government.

Members of the Council were drawn from the ranks of Sunni Arab insurgents who had fallen out with leaders of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia. Denouncing the violent tactics and religious extremism of Al Qaeda, the Awakening Council rallied local leaders and residents to join forces with the Americans. The military credits the Council with reducing crime and violence in Anbar.

Lt. Gen. Raymond T Odierno, in a March 13th Heritage Foundation lecture discussed a Washington Post article which summarized a Marine intelligence report, stating "Between AQI's [al-Qaeda in Iraq's] violence, Iran's influence, and an expected U.S. drawdown, the...situation has deteriorated to a point that U.S. and Iraqi troops are no longer capa¬ble of...defeating the insurgency in al-Anbar." Odierno’s own experiences in Iraq suggested that the province's tribes had already begun to turn against AQI.

Today, the formerly-known “deadliest” province in Iraq is set to be turned over to the Iraqi’s, as earlier as Monday, according to Marine Corps commandant Gen. James T. Conway. In February alone, the number of American troops in Anbar fell from 37,000 to 25,000 while the Iraqi police force had grown from 5,000 to 28,000 since three years ago. While this demonstrates a continuing trend of progress in Iraq, there are some worries. The Shiite led government of Iraq in conjunction with the Iraqi Islamic Party (formerly in-charge of Anbar) have reportedly targeted members of the Awakening Council, as many as 650. Many of these leaders have fled the province.

Despite these troubling developments, the Anbar draw-down may enable the U.S. military to commit urgently needed forces to Afghanistan, where the Taliban has shown strengthened presence as of late. A draft agreement under which American troops would be withdrawn from Iraqi cities by next June is currently being discussed by both Iraqi vice presidents. This agreement may pave the way for all U.S. forces to withdraw from the rest of the country by 2011.