David Ignatius has a good article on Iraqi self-motivation and independence regarding security. It describes their success in the field, the growing cooperation with Coalition Forces and the respect and admiration both the CF, represented by Colonel James Coffman Jr here, and, in this case, General Thavit's Special Police Commandos, have come to have for each other. This story is from the Lebanon Daily Star while this one is in the Buffalo News. It is interesting to note that the following was either dropped from the BN or added to the LDS:

"His police commandos are drawn from all over the country, and they include a mix of the country's religious and ethnic groups. Most are probably Shiite Muslims, but Thavit, a Sunni, looks pained when I ask for an ethnic breakdown. "I don't care who's Shiite, who's Sunni. I want only a good soldier who will fight for his country. I don't want anyone to ask that question, Sunni or Shiite. We are all officers."

A little Google found that the WaPo had it on the 25th with the paragraph included, so it was the BN that yanked it for some reason. I must say, it is good to see that these stories are making it to the MSM, particularly in the Mideast because it haelps with how our troops are viewed there. I must also say, I was disappointed to see only one regional paper, the BN, pick up the opinion column and not surprised greater breadth of coverage in the blogs.

A similar, more general, story was written by Greg Jaffe in the Wall Street Journal (subscription only) back around 18 Feb that Intel-Dump posted on with some comment to boot.

Update: Greg Jaffe's WSJ article can be found here. It was in the WSJ on the 16 Feb.