Just when things were looking up:

“The assassination Thursday of the leader of the Sunni Arab revolt against al-Qaida militants dealt a setback to one of the few success stories in U.S. efforts to stabilize Iraq, but tribesmen in Anbar province vowed not to be deterred in fighting the terror movement.

American and Iraqi officials hoped the death of Abdul-Sattar Abu Risha would not stall the campaign to drive al-Qaida in Iraq from the vast province spreading west of Baghdad and reconcile Sunnis with the Shiite-led national government.

It was the biggest blow to the Anbar tribal alliance since a suicide bomber killed four anti-al-Qaida sheiks as they met in a Baghdad hotel in June. Abu Risha himself had escaped a suicide attack in February. But those attacks and others did not stop the campaign against al-Qaida.

Abu Risha, head of the Anbar Awakening Council who met with President Bush just 10 days earlier, died when a roadside bomb exploded near his home just west of Ramadi as he returned from his farm, police Col. Tareq Youssef said. Two bodyguards and the driver also were killed.

Moments later a car bomb exploded nearby but caused no casualties. An Interior Ministry spokesman, Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf, said the second bomb was intended as a backup in case Abu Risha escaped the first blast.

The attack occurred one year after the goateed, charismatic, chain-smoking young sheik organized 25 Sunni Arab clans into an alliance against al-Qaida in Iraq, seeking to drive the terror movement from sanctuaries where it had flourished after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.”

The media is speculating that this was Al Qaeda thus “they are still strong and able to do damage”…blah, blah.

Cooler heads think it was an inside job or even another tribe jealous of Rishawi. But the most important aspect is the effect this is going to have on say the Sunnis returning to the Iraqi parliament and their fight against Al Qaeda.

I’m of the opinion that this might not be “the end” of an push back against Al Qaeda. It’s quite possible that Risha’s death spurs on greater things as Cliff May notes, never under estimate the power of a martyr.
Yet as he also rightly points out the only real enemy Iraq has now is the Democrats in Congress. Assassinations – whether by Al Qaeda or not, will come. But if we retreat because the Democrats succeed in pulling funding and other needed assistance, well, the blood will be at home – in their hands.

Quite frankly for most Americans who know how to do the right thing that is simply “unacceptable”.