From the Pittsberg Post Gazette:
Zarqawi is running scared. He can no longer hide in urban areas, his people are being turned in when they try that. He can no longer recruit enough suicide bombers. In apparent desperation he is attempting to return to more conventional military tactics with bases in the countryside and organizaed military strikes, but every attempt at this has been an utter disaster for him since it plays to coalition strengths. In the last such exchange 100 Al Qaeda were killed vs 2 Iraq Army and no Americans.
Sunni tribes once supportive of the insurgency have formed the "Anbar Revenge Brigades" to hunt down al-Qaida operatives in the province.
The Anbar Revenge Brigades were formed in response to the assassination of tribal leaders by al-Qaida in a futile effort to keep Sunnis from cooperating with the government.
That this heavy-handed intimidation of erstwhile allies has backfired is indicated by the al-Qaida announcement April 2 that "the Iraqi resistance's high command asked Mr. Zarqawi to give up his political role ... because of several mistakes he made."
Retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey, who served as President Clinton's drug czar and has been sharply critical of the Bush administration's conduct of the war, recently returned from a trip to Iraq.
He concluded: "The foreign jihadist fighters have been defeated as a strategic and operational threat to creation of an Iraqi government."
This opera ain't over, but the fat lady is warming up.
With Al Qaeda mostly gone the insurgents remaining are ex-Baathists who are mainly trying to win consessions from the new government. Many of them or some of them have already entered negotiations with the Iraqi government and the coalition.