On the ground, British correspondent Bartle Bull recently wrote in the Wall Street Journal that "the Baathist Sunnis continued to kill to get back what they used to have, until accepting this past summer that they had suffered an historic defeat in the Battle of Baghdad. Shiite Iraq has arrived to stay, and today the drawing rooms of Baghdad's deal makers are full of Baathists, cap in hand, terrified of the Shiite death squads they inspired and hungry for their slice of the coming oil pie."

On the other hand, "The Wahhabis, mostly foreigners, answering to a higher power and blind to selfish thoughts of wealth and survival, continue to kill but find themselves increasingly unwanted." Bull also notes that this year in Baghdad "over 30 Sunni mosques have been reopened by the government, mostly in the mainly Shiite east of the city."

Al Bayati confirms there is a truce with the dissident militia. "Right now the police and the army are working to stop any militias from having arms."

I asked him what he considered to be the fruits of victory in Iraq. Understandably, he felt that obliterating the Saddam regime with its oppression, torture and mass murder was significant in and of itself. Also important to him, however, is the fact a democratically elected government in Iraq established a beach head of stability in a very complicated region. It is an example of hope to other countries in the region.

Though significant hurdles remain, Al Bayati is enormously grateful to America for its sacrifice in bringing Iraq to the verge of victory. He pleads with us to finish the job, to allow the needed time for the new Iraqi government to complete the solidification of its government. In other words, don't snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

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Joe Cannon is editor of the Deseret Morning News.