Good news from Anbar, bad news from Afghanistan

The good news is that last week American forces handed over security responsibility for Anbar province to the Iraqi government. The bad news is that at the same time we're reminded there is unfinished business in Afghanistan.

As the presence of U.S. troops diminishes in Iraq, military leaders are calling for more of them to be redeployed to help deal with the growing insurgency of revitalized Taliban and al-Qaida forces in Afghanistan.

After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on Washington, D.C., and New York, the Bush administration ordered an invasion of Afghanistan to topple the terrorist-hiding Taliban government. That was done, only to be followed two years later with a shift in U.S. effort and an invasion of Iraq to oust Saddam Hussein and his mythical weapons of mass destruction.

Now it's back to Afghanistan, with more troops to back up the beleaguered, U.S.-backed government of President Hamid Karzai. It's part of a commitment we made to that country after Sept. 11 when we brought down the Taliban government and allowed an elected replacement to happen.

This proposed shift in wartime commitment of troops from Iraq to Afghanistan should not diminish the significance of the Anbar development. That province was known as the cradle of the Sunni insurgency and the birthplace of al-Qaida in Iraq. When local Sunnis turned against al-Qaida, it helped pave the way for a dramatic milestone in the plan to eventually hand over all 18 provinces to Iraqi control.

The Associated Press reported that Anbar is 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.

The violence of the insurgency in Anbar was perhaps most visible when the provincial city of Fallujah fell under control of al-Qaida and other Sunni extremist groups and became the symbol of resistance until U.S. Marines stormed the city in November 2004.

The AP reported that 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 journalists concluded that American forces were powerless to curb the rising power of al-Qaida in Anbar.

All that reversed dramatically months later when Sunni tribesmen, fed up with al-Qaida's brutality, turned against the movement and joined forces with the U.S. to drive the extremists from the province.

Those Sunni groups, known as "awakening councils," became the model for similar grass-roots movements elsewhere in Iraq credited by U.S. officials with helping curb the bloodshed that had pushed Iraq to the brink of all-out civil war.

Iraqis taking over control of their own security, and destiny, should always be the ultimate goal of U.S. involvement there. But without a public exit plan or withdrawal timeline, U.S. involvement has been way too open-ended to suit us.

Now there's this feeling of uneasiness as the focus shifts back to Afghanistan to honor our commitment there. We cannot afford an ongoing presence of American troops in these Mideast trouble spots and we repeat our earlier, oft-stated convictions that dealing with insurgency and al-Qaida must done with much broader regional and international government involvement.

For now, we'll take all the "good" news in Iraq we can get. This steady transfer of provincial security responsibility is a good start.

But as the two presidential campaigns now get serious with the nominations of Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama, let Iraq -- and Afghanistan -- occupy top-priority status in hearing how either will deal with that festering world trouble spot and U.S. involvement in it.

An exit plan or more war? Let's see the details from both, because, after all, one of them is taking over the White House in January.

* Members of the Yakima Herald-Republic editorial board are Michael Shepard, Sarah Jenkins, Bill Lee and Karen Troianello.

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