Oh boy. I don't know what is going to happen next in the Sarah Palin story, but one thing is now for sure: John McCain has picked an Alaskan Margaret Thatcher to be his running mate.

She spoke for 36 pugnacious, stilleto-heeled, in your face, Barack Obama is a limp-wristed cover boy minutes. She blew the roof off. Sarah Palin has now shaken up a presidential race like no other nominee in modern times.

She took to the stage to the back-drop of a breaking National Enquirer story, flatly denied in a press release by the John McCain campaign, that she had had an affair with her husband's former business partner. If I were the editor of the Enquirer tonight, I might be locking my front door. Who knows what will transpire from Alaska in coming days, but Mrs Palin delivered one of the most mesmerising vice-presidential nights in convention history.

The speech was wonderfully crafted by Matt Scully, a Bush White House veteran, but the scene afterwards was the emobodiment of what an extraordinary country America is. Having put to rest any doubts that she is a very tough lady not afraid of a fight, many males in the audience - when not giving her a standing ovation - were instinctively crossing their legs. She was joined by her family, and it was not your normal Republican convention line up.

To an almost primal roar from the Republican delegates, who had just been treated to a barnstorming attack on the Washington media, Barack Obama, and eloquent defence of what it takes to be a mayor and governor, Mrs Palin greeted on stage her 17-year-old pregnant daughter, the father of their baby, Levi Johnston the high school ice hockey hunk who arrived in Minnesota yesterday, her snow-mobiling champion husband Todd, their son Trig born with Down's Syndrome in April, their two other daughters, and eldest son Track, who is to be deployed to Iraq in a week's time.

We are in interesting times.

The best line I heard about Sarah Palin during the frenzied orgy of chauvinist condescension and gutter-crawling journalistic intrusion that greeted her nomination for vice-president a week ago came from a correspondent who knows a thing or two about Alaska.

“What's the difference between Sarah Palin and Barack Obama?”

“One is a well turned-out, good-looking, and let's be honest, pretty sexy piece of eye-candy.

“The other kills her own food.” 

Now we know, thanks to her triumphant debut at the Republican convention on Wednesday, that Mrs Palin not only slaughters her prey. She impales its head on a stick and parades it around for her followers to jeer at. For half an hour she eviscerated Mr Obama in that hall and did it all without dropping her sweet schoolmarm smile, as if she were handing out chocolates at the end of a history lesson.

There's a powerful danger in the sheer thrill that has followed her astonishing performance that we could get carried away with John McCain's running-mate. Some of the coverage has a hyperbolic tone to it. Not since Paris handed that apple to Aphrodite has a man's selection of a woman had such implications for the future of our civilisation.

So let's stipulate one obvious and important piece of wisdom about US elections. The choice of a vice-presidential candidate rarely makes much of a difference. The pundit class waxes historical in the excitement of the moment but usually the vice-presidential choices go back to playing second banana. However mawkishly we dwell on the mortality of the presidential contenders, it is they who determine the voters' decision.

This one, to be fair, could be different. For at least the next few weeks the press will follow Mrs Palin's present and dig deeper into her past, still hoping for some morsel of stupidity or evidence of cupidity to doom her. But in the end, barring such a discovery, this is still an Obama-McCain contest.

But let me try to explain why Mrs Palin, whatever impact she might have in November, may be a figure of real consequence in our lives.

It's partly about what she represents and partly about what she has already done, but mostly about where she and her ilk might take the Republicans - and possibly America.

It never ceases to amaze me how the Left falls again and again into the old trap of underestimating politicians whom they don't understand. From Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher to George Bush and Mrs Palin, they do it every time. Because these characters talk a bit funny and have ridiculously antiquated views about faith, family and nation, because they haven't spent time bending the knee to the intellectual metropolitan elites, they can't be taken seriously.

So the general expectation was that Mrs Palin would stumble on to the stage in high heels, clutching her sprawling, slightly odd family (five children! how weird), mispronounce the name of the Russian Prime Minister, mutter a few platitudes about God, and disappear for ever to a deafening chorus of sniggers.

No one paid much attention to the fact that she had been elected governor of a state. Or that she got to that office not because, unlike some politicians I could mention, her husband had been there before her, or because she bleated continuously about glass ceilings, but by challenging the entrenched interests in her own party and beating them. In almost two years as Governor she has cleaned out the Augean stables of Alaskan Government. You don't win a statewide election and enjoy approval ratings of more than 80 per cent without real political talent.

Never mind all that. She didn't have a passport! She was a former beauty queen! It was so axiomatic that she was a disaster that I was told by lots of savvy men - with deliciously unconscious sexism - that the real problem was what the choice said about Mr McCain and his judgment: cynical, irresponsible, clueless. It was as if Mrs Palin wasn't really a human being at all, but an article of Mr McCain's clothing that showed his poor taste, like wearing brown shoes with a charcoal suit.

So here's why she matters.

Video footage of BigDog, which has been built to carry equipment and march alongside troops in rough terrain such as in Iraq, has attracted millions of viewers.

The robot, which is described as its creators as the "alpha male" of robotic animals, is about the size of a Great Dane. It runs at 4 mph and can hold a 24-stone load. However its makers, Boston Dynamics, have claimed that it will soon be succeeded by an even faster, stronger model.

A computerised brain sits at its core, and controls a small petrol engine which drives its aluminium legs. Each of the legs features three joints that can be repositioned 500 times every second, meaning the robot can even withstand a hefty blow to its body.

Marc Raibert, the president of Boston Dynamics, said: "Internal force sensors detect the ground variations and compensate for them. And BigDog's active balance allows it to maintain stability when we disturb it."

Current models of BigDog are remote-controlled from army bases by commanders. However it is thought that future versions will be built with eye-like sensors that allow it to become "unleashed" by making intelligent decisions about a journey.

The project was sponsored by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which is responsible for coming up with radical inventions for the military.

 

A US Navy flagship carrying humanitarian aid yesterday steamed into a Georgian port where Russian troops are still stationed, stoking tensions once again in the tinderbox Caucasus region. 

A previous trip by US warships was cancelled at the last minute a week ago amid fears that an armed stand-off could intensify in the Black Sea port of Poti.

The arrival of the USS Mount Whitney, flagship of the 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean, came as Moscow accused Dick Cheney, the hawkish US Vice-President, of stoking tensions during a visit to Tbilisi this week. After meeting President Saakashvili, Mr Cheney vowed to bring Georgia into the Nato alliance. Russia sees such moves as Western encroachment on its traditional sphere of influence.

Russia’s leaders have accused previous US warships that docked at the port of Batumi, to the south, of delivering weapons to re-arm the smashed Georgian military — charges that Washington denied. 

While Russia again questioned the deployment of what it described as “the number one ship of its type in the US Navy” in the Black Sea, it said that it planned no military action in response. The Russian Army has kept a small component of soldiers in Poti, where Georgian officials accuse them of looting port authority buildings.

“Naval ships of that class can hardly deliver a large amount of aid,” said Andrei Nesterenko, a Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman. “Such ships have a hold for keeping provisions for the crew and items needed for sailing. How many tonnes of aid can a ship of that type deliver?”

He said that the presence of US warships could contravene international conventions governing shipping in the Black Sea, and in particular restrictions on the entry of naval ships from countries that do not share a Black Sea coastline. The small Russian garrison in Poti would pose no military threat to a vessel like the Mount Whitney, but the proximity of two hostile forces in such a fraught environment set the political temperature rising again in the Caucasus a month after Russia’s five-day war with Georgia.

Moscow, which followed up its crushing military defeat of Georgia by unilaterally recognising two of its breakaway provinces, South Ossetia and Abkhazia, was angry that Mr Cheney still insisted on Georgia’s entrance into the Atlantic alliance — something several key Nato members oppose. “The new promises to Tbilisi relating to the speedy membership of Nato strengthen the Saakashvili regime’s dangerous feeling of impunity and encourages its dangerous ambitions,” said Mr Nesterenko.

Visiting Kiev, the Ukrainian capital yesterday, Mr Cheney kept up his tough anti-Russian rhetoric when he urged Ukraine’s squabbling pro-Western leaders to unite in the face of threats to the country’s security. He met President Yushchenko and Yuliya Tymoshenko, the Prime Minister, and told them that Ukraine’s best hope was to be “united with other democracies”.

Mr Yushchenko has accused his former Orange Revolution ally of siding with Russia in the war with Georgia, an allegation she denies. The split led to the collapse of Ukraine’s coalition Government on Tuesday.

After endorsing Georgia’s application, Mr Cheney said that the US was also committed to Ukraine’s membership of Nato. Konstantin Kosachyov, head of the foreign affairs committee in Russia’s lower house, accused Mr Cheney of forging an “anti-Russian axis”.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's highly anticipated speech at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday night nearly matched the record-setting numbers of Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama.

Palin pulled in 37.2 million viewers across broadcast and cable networks, according to Nielsen Media Research.

That's 55% higher than Day 3 of the DNC, when her Democratic counterpart, Joe Biden, and President Clinton took the stage (24 million).

It's also up a sharp 99% from the Republican convention's third day in 2004 (18.7 million) and easily bests the numbers viewers attracted by George W. Bush when he accepted the nomination (27.6 million). In fact, it came close to upsetting Obama's historic address last Thursday -- the most-watched convention speech in history (38.4 million viewers).

Palin's viewership is up 73% from Tuesday's RNC tally, when 21.5 million tuned in to see President Bush and independent Sen. Joe Lieberman endorse nominee John McCain. The event also drew more female viewers than Hillary Clinton's speech last week.

John McCain's choice of Sarah Palin, governor of Alaska, as his running mate finally gave Republicans a reason to vote for him -- a reason, that is, other than B. Hussein Obama.

The media are hopping mad about McCain's vice presidential selection, but they're really furious over at MSNBC. After drawing "Keith (plus) Obama" hearts on their denim notebooks, Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews stayed up all night last Thursday, writing jokes about Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, the presumed vice presidential pick. Now they can't use any of them.

So the media are taking it out on our brave Sarah and her 17-year-old daughter.

 

They claimed Palin was chosen only because she's a woman. In fact, Palin was chosen because she's pro-life, pro-gun, pro-drilling and pro-tax cuts. She's fought both Republicans and Democrats on public corruption and does not have hair plugs like some other vice presidential candidate I could mention. In other words, she's a "Republican."

As a right-winger, Palin will appeal to the narrow 59 percent of Americans who voted for another former small-market sportscaster: Ronald Reagan. Our motto: Sarah Palin is only a heartbeat away!

If you're going to say Palin was chosen because she's a woman, you're going to have to demonstrate that the runners-up were more qualified. Gov. Tim Pawlenty seems like a terrific fellow and fine governor, but he is not obviously more qualified than Palin.

As for former governor of Pennsylvania Tom Ridge and Democratic Sen. Joe Lieberman, the other also-rans, I can think of at least 40 million unborn reasons she's better than either of them.

Within the first few hours after Palin's name was announced, McCain raised $4 million in campaign donations online, reaching $10 million within the next two days. Which shortlist vice presidential pick could have beaten that?

The media hysterically denounced Palin as "inexperienced." But then people started to notice that she has more executive experience than B. Hussein Obama -- the guy at the top of the Democrats' ticket.

They tried to create a "Troopergate" for Palin, indignantly demanding to know why she wanted to get her ex-brother-in-law removed as a state trooper. Again, public corruption is not a good issue for someone like Obama, Chicago pol and noted friend of Syrian National/convicted felon Antoin Rezko.

For the cherry on top, then we found out Palin's ex-brother-in-law had Tasered his own 10-year-old stepson. Defend that, Democrats.

The bien-pensant criticized Palin, saying it's irresponsible for a woman with five children to run for vice president. Liberals' new talking point: Sarah Palin: Only five abortions away from the presidency.

They claimed her newborn wasn't her child, but the child of her 17-year-old daughter. That turned out to be a lie.

Then they attacked her daughter, who actually is pregnant now, for being unmarried. When liberals start acting like they're opposed to pre-marital sex and mothers having careers, you know McCain's vice presidential choice has knocked them back on their heels.

But at least liberal reporters had finally found someone their own size to pick on: a 17-year-old girl.

Speaking of Democrats with newborn children, the media weren't particularly concerned about John Edwards running for president despite his having a mistress with a newborn child.

The fact that Democrats are jumping all over her (albeit haltingly because they aren't sure exactly HOW to attack her), tells you how worried they are. She's a tax-cutting, pro-drilling, environmentalist, gun-toting, ice-fishing, hockey-playing, pro-life mom of five, with a son about to be deployed to Iraq. She's one incredibly relatable person. Cool, too.

The Democrats and their fellow travelers in the media have tried to attack her for being "inexperienced." I certainly hope they continue down that path, considering the guy at the TOP of their ticket was approving dog license fees in Chicago 3 years ago.

Anderson Cooper asked Barack Obama last night to answer the claim that Sarah Palin has more applicable experience than he does. In response, he completely ignores Palin’s status as governor, and then makes the claim that a campaign counts as executive experience:

AC: Some Republican critics say, you don’t have the experience to handle a situation like this [Hurricane Gustav]. They’ve in fact said that Governor Palin has more executive experience as mayor of a small town and as governor of a big state like Alaska. What’s your response?

BO: Well, you know, my understanding is that, uh, Governor Palin’s town of Wasilly [sic] has, uh, 50 employees, uh, uh, we’ve got 2500, uh, in this campaign. I think their budget is maybe $12 million a year. Uh, uh, we have a budget of about three times that just for the month. Uh, so I think that, uh, our ability to manage large systems, uh, and to, uh, execute, uh, I think has been made clear over the last couple of years. Uh, and certainly, in terms of, uh, the legislation that I’ve passed just dealing with this issue post-Katrina, uh, of how we handle emergency management. The fact that, uh, many of my recommendations were adopted and are being put in place, uh, as we speak indicates to extent to which we can provide the kinds of support and good service that the American people expect.

[...]

But the main point here is that Obama didn’t really answer the question, and he set up a straw man argument in response to Cooper. Governor Palin is, well, governor, and not currently the mayor of Wasila. As Governor, Palin operates a $9 billion budget, and manages $13 billion in revenue. Furthermore, she runs a government that employs 25,000 people.

Obama blithely pretends that she’s still the mayor of “Wasilly” in order to boost himself. However, running for office isn’t executive experience, for one good reason: Obama isn’t the campaign manager. He has a CEO actually running the campaign, handling the budget, and managing the people while Obama makes the speeches.

If this is Obama’s best response on the experience question, the attacks on Palin’s experience will have to stop, unless the campaign wants Obama to keep embarrassing himself while making it.

We noted the nutroots’ deepening Palin Derangement Syndrome over the weekend, topped by a diarist at the Daily Kos who’s been spreading disgusting, bottom-of-the-barrel rumors — picked up by the excitable and shameless Andrew Sullivan — about Gov. Sarah Palin’s youngest child and attacking one of Palin’s daughters as the mother of Trig.

The Free Republic fights back with photos of a very pregnant Gov. Palin in late February. I linked to an April blog post from an airline passenger who met the pregnant governor on a flight from Fairbanks. It is unbelievably surreal that this dirtbag Kossack rumor has to be debunked.

Even another Kos diarist is now trying to undo the damage. Accompanied by the photo the Freepers found, the diarist headlined a post this morning: “Sarah Palin Baby Story Ender.” The diarist insists: “Unless someone has counter evidence, we can drop this crap now.”

 

The diarist is arguing with his/her fellow tinfoilers about whether Palin is wearing a “fake pregnancy suit” and commenters are still insisting that Palin’s daughter was showing and the governor was not. And in an update, the diarist — no doubt feeling pressure from the paranoid zealots in the cesspool — is polling readers on whether the post should be deleted. Nearly 30 percent of readers think the post attempting to debunk the rumor should be deleted.

Truly, truly unhinged.

You really can’t cure stupid.

When Democrat Barack Obama brought Sen. Joe Biden on board, pundits of every stripe referred to it as a move to add gravitas to the ticket. This theory was not disputed, and it appeared Obama was indeed betting on the foreign policy experience of the “great statesman” to lift his campaign above the arguments about Obama’s own inexperience. As the public waited for Biden to give his convention speech in Denver last week, they anticipated being wowed by the knowledge and insight he would bring to the table.

But it was not to be. Biden gave his speech, and while the public was still digesting it and the spin doctors were still spinning it, Republican John McCain announced Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate and crashed Biden’s party. As a matter of fact, now that McCain has named Palin as his V.P., I can’t even remember what Biden said in his speech. And I bet most other Americans don’t, either.

Poor Biden: his attempts to land a gig in the White House have never gone smoothly. When he tried to secure the Democrat nomination for president in the 1988 race, he had to drop out because people discovered that he was plagiarizing the speeches of a British Labor Party leader named Neil Kinnock. (Actually, he not only stole Kinnock’s words. Biden hijacked his whole life story).

 

When he ran for his party’s 2008 presidential nomination, he had to drop out in the midst of the primary elections because no one cared whether he was in the race or not (he only drew 1% of the vote in the Iowa caucus in January 2008). And now, in what promised to be his best run for a national office yet, he finds himself facing off against a beauty queen-turned-governor from Alaska, who has the tenacity of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan’s conviction that peace comes through strength.

Just for kicks, I looked up the text of Biden’s convention speech and tried to re-familiarize myself with it. (It just seems like it was so long ago since he gave it now.) As I reconsidered it, I realized I had given him too much credit by originally thinking his speech was average. In reality, his speech was nothing less than an attack on the ideals of a free society and an admission that his years in Washington have taught him that people ought to rely on government rather than themselves. This was evident from the way his opening lines about how his parents taught him to be responsible for himself soon gave way to “I’ve never seen a time when Washington has watched so many people get knocked down without doing anything to help them get back up.”

Biden also talked about loyalty in his speech, and how his parents had instilled the importance of it in him. Then he described McCain as a friend, and proceeded to verbally assault him with an endless array of half-truths and insinuations. Is this the loyalty his parents taught him to show to friends?

One other quick point before moving on. After recounting the tough, rugged-individualism his father had instilled in him, he said, “I wish my dad was here tonight.” Why did he say this? Why would he want his father to see that he doesn’t have a friend he won’t turn on to draw applause, and that he has traded the ideals of self-reliance for the enslaving philosophy of socialism?

While GOP Presidential hopeful John McCain introduced his new running-mate, Gov. Sarah Palin, American Issues Project wrapped up its first phase of a television advertising and issue campaign, which called into question the long-standing relationship between Barack Obama and unrepentant 1960s domestic terrorist, William Ayers.

"American Issues Project clearly has struck a nerve inside the Obama campaign, but even more important is the reaction of the American people, who are starting to question why Sen. Obama would have such a close relationship with an unrepentant domestic terrorist," said Ed Martin, American Issues Project president.

"The heavy-handed response of the Obama campaign definitely misfired. The more the Obama campaign has tried to bully the ad off the air with its spurious legal threats and intimidation, the more voters have wondered what he has to hide," he said.

The made-for-television ad examines the connection between Sen. Obama and domestic terrorist William Ayers, co-founder of the violent, radical Weather Underground movement that "declared war on America" and successfully bombed the U.S. Capitol, Pentagon, a police station in New York and other targets across the nation.

Ayers has not only trumpeted his role in the bombings, he is unrepentant. On September 11th, 2001, the New York Times reported him saying, "I don't regret setting bombs... I feel we didn't do enough."

Last week, the Democrats’ convention intentions were highlighted here, and judging by the actual festivities that were held this week, Howard Dean should have taken that advice. All conventions are infamously boring, but this year’s DNC festivities have made a Dennis Kucinich-Joe Lieberman debate look like Mardi Gras! Thankfully, relief, albeit minor, is coming in the form of the Republican National Convention, which will begin on September 1st in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota.

Naturally, the Republicans will want to insert some jocularity into the proceedings, while trying not to encourage the pot-smoking hippies that showed up in Denver. Good, clean, wholesome family fun is the aim here. Will the Grand Old Party hit a home run, or will it strike out like Bill Clinton at Ladies’ Night?

Here is a partial list of their itinerary, courtesy of Julie, the Cruise Director...

According to the lead article (in Hebrew) in the weekend edition of the Israeli daily Maariv, Israel’s top political and security officials have taken a decision to attack Iran’s nuclear program if nothing else is done to halt it.

Senior journalist Ben Caspit writes that “the debate between those who think everything must be done, including a military operation, to stop Iran from obtaining a nuclear bomb and those who think one can live with it, has been decided. If the Iranian regime doesn’t fall during the coming year, if the Americans don’t deliver a military blow and if the sanctions don’t break the Iranian nuclear program, Israel will have to take action. In other words: the preparations for an Israeli military option…are already underway.”

Caspit adds by way of explanation: “In the Tehran-Jerusalem-Washington triangle, things haven’t been going well. Israel is desperate to get American permission for an attack on Iran, but is not obtaining it…. The shortest flight route to Iran passes over Iraq, where the Americans are in control.”

Instead of the needed overflight codes, Caspit claims, the U.S. is offering Israel defensive radar—“‘We’ll help you defend yourselves, but we’ll prevent you from attacking,’ say the Americans.” That description dovetails with recent reports of opposition to a strike on Iran—Israeli or American—particularly by Defense Secretary Robert Gates, National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell, and Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Michael Mullen. A security source told Caspit that “the Americans have accepted a nuclear Iran and are trying to get us to accept it.”

Israel, though, according to Caspit, is not about to do that, and former deputy defense minister Ephraim Sneh (now head of a new political party) has been especially active trying to get that point across. Caspit says Sneh sent a document to both U.S. presidential candidates, John McCain and Barack Obama, in which he stated: “No government in Jerusalem will accept a nuclear Iran. Once it is clear Iran is at the point of nuclearization, an Israeli military action to prevent it will be on the agenda.”

To avoid that, Sneh wrote to McCain and Obama, the time has come for an all-out U.S. effort to get Europe to cooperate in imposing “real” sanctions aimed at toppling the Iranian regime. Those sanctions, Sneh believes, would have to be a complete embargo on replacement parts for Iran’s oil and refined-oil industry and a total boycott of the Iranian banking system.

Apparently aware himself of how hard that would be to achieve, Sneh recently went to Switzerland and Austria—countries that, as Caspit notes, “have announced huge investments in Iranian gas and oil fields for the next decade.”

Caspit quotes Sneh as telling him that “words about a Holocaust of Jews or Israeli security don’t impress those folks.” So instead Sneh told them it was “too bad” about their investments, “because Iddo’s going to set it all on fire”—referring to recently appointed Israeli air force chief Iddo Nehushtan. “‘Investing in Iran in 2008,’ Sneh told the Austrians, ‘is like investing in the Krupp steelworks in 1938, a high-risk investment.’ The Austrians, according to Sneh, turned pale.”

If we thought the reporting from Iraq was atrocious, please look at what is (not) coming out of Afghanistan. At the current rate, reporting to the American public will be almost completely secondhand, regurgitated from email and phone interviews, and most embeds will be like the war tourism we so often saw in Iraq. There are British and Canadians doing more firsthand reporting, but the Americans seem to be leaving it mostly to the winds.

And so this is not a tropical storm warning. This is not a warning about high seas ahead. We are talking about Hurricane Afghanistan, without weather reporters. But if there are no cameras there to record the damage, will it really have happened? We have a military that is now very experienced in counterinsurgency. The military knows what it’s doing from the NCOs up the 4-star generals. These are among the few people I trust to know what we need in Afghanistan. They are our best, and we cannot allow them to be fed into some political meat-grinder.

As I wrote in 2006, Afghanistan is the new hot war. We are on a collision course with heavy fighting in the near future. Victory is crucial. We have our best people fighting. But we also need our best journalists and writers here. Our political process cannot be trusted. We must have public auditing in the media, or many politicians will not support our commanders, and those politicians will mangle Afghanistan like they did Iraq. Without top-notch journalism, Afghanistan could become America’s forgotten war. After we lose it.

I am with British combat forces in southern Afghanistan. Please stay tuned for some interesting reports. The situation is more interesting than I am currently permitted to report, but the embargo will soon be lifted.

 

BAGHDAD — American forces on Monday handed over security responsibility to the Iraqis in a province that the U.S. once feared was lost — a sign of the stunning reversal of fortunes since local Sunnis turned against al-Qaida in Iraq.

But a Sunni Arab leader criticized the Shiite-led government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki for failing to embrace its newfound allies, underlining the threat that sectarian tensions still pose to a lasting peace.

Nevertheless, the transfer of Anbar province, the cradle of the Sunni insurgency and the birthplace of al-Qaida in Iraq, marked a dramatic milestone in America's plan to eventually hand over all 18 provinces to Iraqi control so U.S. troops can go home.

The 25,000 American troops remaining in Anbar will focus on training Iraq's military and police forces and standing by to help if the Iraqis are unable to cope with any surge in violence.

The ceremony was held under tight security in the center of Ramadi, the provincial capital where American troops fought ferocious battles with al-Qaida and other Sunni insurgents until the tide turned in 2007.

"This war is not quite over, but it's being won and primarily by the people of Anbar. Al-Qaida has not been entirely defeated in Anbar, but their end is near and they know it," Marine Maj. Gen. John Kelly, the senior U.S. commander in Anbar, said during the handover ceremony.

President Bush hailed the handover as a major achievement, saying the once-violent province had been "transformed and reclaimed by the Iraqi people."

"Iraqi forces will now take the lead in security operations in Anbar, with American troops moving into an overwatch role," Bush said in a statement. "This achievement is a credit to the courage of our troops, the Iraqi security forces, and the brave tribes and other civilians from Anbar who worked alongside them."

Anbar became the 11th province to revert to Iraqi security control, but it is the most significant because it borders Baghdad. The others have been in the peaceful Kurdish north or in the heavily Shiite south, which has proven less difficult for the Shiite-led government to control.

Anbar, a predominantly Sunni Arab expanse stretching from the western edge of the capital to the borders of Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, was long center stage of the war and a springboard for attacks inside Baghdad.

Al-Qaida used the Euphrates River valley as a corridor for smuggling weapons, fighters and ammunition from Syria into the Sunni heartland and on to Baghdad.

The Anbar city of Fallujah fell under the sway of al-Qaida and other Sunni extremist groups and became the symbol of resistance until U.S. Marines stormed the city in November 2004 in the fiercest urban combat of the Iraq war.

But the loss of Fallujah did not deter the insurgents, who quickly rallied in Ramadi and other cities. In August 2006, a U.S. intelligence report widely leaked to journal