“At a checkpoint just south of Fallujah [Iraq], Nadim Kaffi, a 44-year-old Awakening [counterinsurgency] member, said al-Qaeda in Iraq was not nearly as close to the people as the Awakening councils. ‘Al-Qaeda is almost done and finished. It no longer scares anyone,’ he said. ‘It is like an old man on the verge of his grave.’ ”
– Amit R. Paley, “Shift in Tactics Aims to Revive Struggling Insurgency,” The Washington Post, Feb. 8, 2008