NYT Admits al Qaeda Presence in Iraq

Today's headline reads Local Insurgents Tell of Clashes With Al Qaeda's Forces in Iraq. After denying that Iraq had anything to do with the Global War on terror, the NYT runs this story on its front page.

It relates the stories of various insurgent groups getting fed up with the nihlistic psychopath Zarqawi and his odious followers and the dustups between the various terrorist factions.

The battle, which the insurgents said was fought on Oct. 23, was one of several clashes between Al Qaeda and local Iraqi guerrilla groups that have broken out in recent months across the Sunni Triangle.

American and Iraqi officials believe that the conflicts present them with one of the biggest opportunities since the insurgency burst upon Iraq nearly three years ago. They have begun talking with local insurgents, hoping to enlist them to cooperate against Al Qaeda, said Western diplomats, Iraqi officials and an insurgent leader.

These stories have been reported by various bloggers for quite some time now. The NYT is late to this party - and their front page coverage of this story is an admission of what most critical observers of the Iraq campaign have known for a while - al Qaeda is being soundly defeated in Iraq and have turned one-time allies in the insurgency against themselves.

UPDATE:
Captain Ed has similar thoughts based on a Der Spiegel article posted yesterday:

While the insurgents still have no love for the Americans, the awakening to the dangers of AQ domination have provided some of the impetus for the Sunni to start participating in the democratic processes instead of continuing their insurgency. That development, no matter what the motivation, bodes well for the new Iraqi nation. The realization of what an AQ-approved government would entail will remind even the more incalcitrant Sunnis that democracy provides a much better guarantee of protecting them, and not just from the lunatics of the Islamofascist stripe. They have to live with the peoples they dominated for decades, and the structure of laws and government that the Kurds, Shi'ites, and a handful of Sunnis have built will be their only hope against their certain annihilation in a civil war.

The new Iraq is on its way, and al-Qaeda is facing a humiliating defeat from an ad-hoc alliance of Arabs and Westerners together.

UPDATE:
Confederate Yankee also comments on the NYT story. He calls it tactical seppuku.