IBD:

A leading figure in the war on terror lectures his troops on avoiding the mistakes and brutality that alienate the Iraqi people. No, it’s not Murtha lecturing Petraeus. It’s Osama bin Laden admitting he’s losing.

No one has ever accused bin Laden of being stupid. The architect of 9/11 has seen better days and has admitted as much in a tape advising al-Qaida in Iraq to avoid the “mistakes” that have united the people of Iraq, Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds, against him.

“Some of you have been lax in one duty, which is to unite your ranks,” Osama advises followers in a tape aired Monday on Al-Jazeera television. “I advise myself, Muslims in general and brothers in al-Qaida everywhere to avoid extremism among men and groups.” Bin Laden, the voice of moderation? Who’da thunk it?

He sees, as we have seen, the uniting of Sunnis and Shiites against the mindless barbarism of al-Qaida in Iraq in the days when Anbar province was considered lost. That nihilistic violence, coupled with an American surge where U.S. and Iraqi troops came and this time stayed, have turned the tide in our favor.