After all, as he puts it, "I'm sure the Americans will leave after a little while, and there's nothing I achieve by killing them now. I could kill them anytime, anywhere, and so what? In the beginning, the thought was that you could achieve your goal with weapons, but honestly? That investment has shown no return."

"How one Iraqi moved on from terrorism," from [1] USA Today, January 13 (thanks to Jeffrey Imm):

Nadhim Khalil used to fight the U.S. military as a member of al-Qaeda in Iraq.

Now, The Washington Post says this 30-year-old may be the most powerful man in Thuluyah, where he works with the U.S. military and advises Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

"I'm sure the Americans will leave after a little while, and there's nothing I achieve by killing them now. I could kill them anytime, anywhere, and so what?" Khalil, also known as Mullah Nadim, tells the paper. "In the beginning, the thought was that you could achieve your goal with weapons, but honestly? That investment has shown no return. That company has shown no profit."

Khalil says he belonged to al-Qaeda in Iraq for about a year. He now runs the regional Sons of Iraq, a Sunni militia...