On August 17, 2006, senior Marine intelligence officer in Iraq, Colonel Pete Devlin, concluded in an intelligence assessment titled ‘State of the Insurgency in al-Anbar:’ ” ‘AQI [al Qaeda in Iraq] is the dominant organization of influence in al-Anbar, surpassing nationalist insurgents, the Iraqi Government, and MNF [Multi-National Forces] in its ability to control the day-to-day life of the average Sunni. Transitioning to a primarily Iraqi organization in late 2004, AQI has become an integral part of the social fabric of Western Iraq. …Al-Anbar Sunni now see an entrenched, Iraqi AQI that in some cases has taken on the mantle of nationalism, or more recently, ‘defender of the faithful’ against the Iranian-backed Shi’a. Although most al-Anbar Sunni dislike, resent, and distrust AQI, many increasingly see it as an inevitable part of daily life and, in some cases, their only hope for protection against a possible ethnic cleansing campaign by the central government.’ ”
– Thomas E. Ricks, The Gamble, Page 332