The United States is empowering a new group of Sunni leaders, including onetime members of former president Saddam Hussein's Baath Party, intelligence services and army, who are challenging established Sunni politicians for their community's leadership. The phenomenon marks a sharp turnaround in U.S. policy and the fortunes of Iraq's Sunni minority.

Actors without seats at the table means no solutions. Hence, the change.

You can bet one man is behind it. Gates.

He's in charge of Iraq policy. I occasionally get face time with a guy who works directly with him and for him only. He's the one who is getting Iraq right slowly. Currently we are there. I wish we were not. But I want to see successes while we are there. I think we need to get out of Iraq in a military sense far sooner than later. These were the guys we should have been working with from the beginning. Because their world view, although what many would call evil, is something that we can relate to. These are materialists that we knocked out of power in exchange for foriegn-dominated members of the long-supressed majority.That was a mistake.