As part of its counterinsurgency effort, the U.S. military is running two schools for suspected insurgents, mostly aged 18 to 29, in Iraq, in order to identify and facilitate the release of non-jihadis as well as to de-radicalize and rehabilitate other detainees. Many thousands of detainees, writes Judith Miller, are being taught reading, writing, and vocational skills, and some are even learning to play chess. So successful are these programs that detainees have begun to volunteer for the classes.

A most valuable observation about this effort is how it works to defeat violent Islamic extremism. Movingly, Miller quotes a school sheik-counselor:

After Iraqis here learn how to read and write, they can read the Koran themselves for the first time … I’ve seen detainees break down and cry when they realize that the conduct they thought was sanctioned by God is actually a sin.

Maybe U.S. campuses have something to learn from “Anti-Jihad U.”