PRESIDENT BUSH AND CAPTAIN PATRIQUIN

Sir Thomas Gresham noted that: "bad money drives out good." A kind of Gresham's Law applies in politics and journalism. Bad advice drives out good. 

The recommendations of the Iraq Study Group (composed of 10 famous people who know next to nothing about either the military or the Middle East) received enormous attention from the news media.  But the report last week from people who actually know what they're talking about received little.

Aside from the surreal recommendation that we ask our enemies, Iran and Syria, for help in quelling the violence they are largely responsible for fomenting, the ISG recommended, essentially, that we do more of what hasn't worked very well. 

President Bush has been asking a lot of people what he should do next in Iraq.  But he should have consulted with Travis Patriquin.

Captain Patriquin possessed two qualities most of those offering Mr. Bush advice do not.  He'd been in Iraq for a lot more than a couple of days, and he spoke fluent Arabic.

A former Special Forces officer then assigned to the First Armored Division, Capt. Patriquin, 32, was killed in Ramadi December 6.  But he left behind an 18-page briefing on How to Win the War in al Anbar.

It's such a simple Power-Point presentation with stick figure drawings that even Silvestre Reyes, incoming chairman of the House Intelligence Committee could understand it.

Americans can't win in Anbar (populated almost entirely by Sunni Arabs) by fighting the insurgents, because they can't tell "the good Iraqis from the bad Iraqis," Capt. Patriquin said.

Iraqi army units (composed almost entirely of Shias and Kurds from outside the area) have the same problem, he said.

The solution is to work with tribal sheikhs who oppose Al Qaeda and their militias, Capt. Patriquin said.  Sheikhs have been authority figures in Anbar for millennia, and they and their militias know who's who.

Give the sheikhs respect and government contracts, and recruit their militias into the local police, Capt. Patriquin said.

Soldier-blogger "Teflon Don" says Capt. Patriquin's approach works:

"A local sheikh came to the Army unit in charge of the sector he lived in, announced he wanted to fight the insurgents, and asked for help in doing so," he wrote Nov. 29.  "To demonstrate his commitment, he organized his militia and began to quell some of the violence in the sector.  With days, indirect fire attacks against U.S. bases dropped to nearly zero."

If Mr. Bush wants to win in Iraq, he cannot do so until and unless he stops paying attention to old suits in Washington and starts taking advice from folks like Capt. Patriquin.  He paid for his advice with his life.  Mr. Bush could best honor him by paying attention to it.