Bing West, a correspondent with Atlantic Monthly and a former defense official under Ronald Reagan, said in an interview with the Council on Foreign Relations that most assessments of the counterinsurgency strategy ignore the motives of the Sunni Awakening councils in siding with U.S. military forces in Anbar, which Bing categorizes as "the strongest tribe."

West said Sunni tribal leaders viewed the U.S. military as the force most likely to prevail in the region and gave credit to commanders on the ground for making that relationship work, not policymakers in Baghdad or Washington.

Iraq is a different kind of war, West says, with progress measured in regional developments and not necessarily in the actions of a particular platoon in a particular battle.

On the proposed drawdown of U.S. forces in Iraq, he said as the security situation improves under the newly appointed commander in Iraq, Gen. Ray Odierno, the withdrawal would continue to progress.

"I'd be very surprised if we don't see that we continue to go down (in troop numbers), because the fighting has gone way down," he said.

West cautioned, however, that any withdrawal would have to be "subtle" so as not to disrupt the delicate security situation in Iraq.

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