I won't lie, Fred Thompson has irked me with his generally cavalier attitude about running for president, but that's not to say that he doesn't have a firm grasp of the issues surrounding the war in Iraq. He was blasted over the weekend for saying that "an Al Qaeda smoking ban was one reason freedom-loving Iraqis bolted to the U.S. side."

"They said, 'You gotta quit smoking,'" Thompson explained to a questioner asking about progress in Iraq during a town hall-style meeting.

Thompson said the smoking ban and terror tactics Al Qaeda used to oppress women and intimidate local leaders pushed tribes in western Anbar Province to support U.S. troops.

But Thompson's tale of a smokers' revolt baffled some in the audience of about 150 who came to decide whether the former Tennessee senator is ready for prime time.

"I don't know what that was about," said Jim Moran, 72, who had driven from nearby McCook Lake, S.D.

But Newsbusters has the goods, and it seems that, according to Michael Yon and CNN, the smoking ban actually played a pretty significant role in turning the locals against AQI. This shouldn't be terribly surprising really, as David Kilcullen wrote at Small Wars Journal a few weeks ago, AQI managed to alienate its base not through violence and ideology, though one assumes those factors did play a part as well, but through its heavy handed meddling in economic and family matters.