Talk Radio News Service: News, Politics, Media

By Ellen Ratner
I have some good news and some bad news – depending on your point of view – for you, my readers. For the next several weeks, this space will be filled with exclusive weekly reports from Richard F. Miller, military affairs correspondent for Talk Radio News Service (he is also my cousin and is 29 hours older than me, although light years apart politically).

By the time you read this, he will be en route to the U.S. Army's 3rd Heavy Combat Brigade Team, 4th Infantry Division, which is stationed at FOB Warhorse in Iraq's Diyala Province. For three weeks, he will be reporting on all aspects of life for our men and women in Iraq. He's made this trip twice before, reporting from the USS Kitty Hawk during OIF-I, and last March from the 3rd Battalion, 8th Marines in Fallujah.

I have also tasked him with answering the question now on everyone's mind: Given the rivers of blood flowing daily through Iraqi streets, marketplaces and mosques, is Bush's war effort collapsing?

Those of you who have followed this column already know my answer: I opposed Bush's invasion and repeatedly warned of the consequences that have now beset our country's policy, and endanger the bravest of the brave – our uniformed servicemen and women. But Richard is likely to have a different opinion, since we are on opposite sides of this issue. In short, for the next several weeks, this space may not be very liberal, but it will certainly remain proud. I wish Cousin Richard God-speed, and am confident that whatever he finds, he will report it as he sees it.

Now, here is my take on recent events. Informed observers have always understood that Iraq is best compared to the legendary fires at tire dumps, where millions of tires are stacked in towering mounds. A fire can smolder for years in the heart of these rubber mountains, virtually undetected, until suddenly it breaks forth in white-hot flames, whose acrid smoke can still choke people who are miles away.

Thus it is with Iraq. Civil war has been smoldering under the surface for years. Sectarian militias were arming. Revenge killings – Shia-on-Sunni and Sunni-on-Shia – have always been in evidence, usually appearing in reports of large numbers of bodies found, hands bound, shot in the head and, invariably, often erroneously blamed on "the guerillas."

Iran has been assisting the Shia-side of this lethal equation with agents, weapons and cash. The Sunnis have received assistance, not just from radical jihadi types (actually, a small minority of the resistance) but also with cash and weapons from former Baathists, as well as support from "mainstream" Arab countries like Saudi Arabia. More alarmingly, there is growing evidence that the Iraqi government, on whose behalf so much American and Iraqi blood has been spilled and treasure spent, is in fact a vehicle for sectarian violence. Shia militias have apparently infiltrated the Interior Ministry, and are using government jails to torture their enemies and local police as death squads for revenge against their ethnic enemies.

Thus, the destruction of the Askariyah Shrine in Samarra was not the "cause" of the recent violence, but rather a symptom of a progressive and perhaps terminal illness that began long ago. And if this analysis is correct – and I would caution my conservative readers now to take these warnings seriously, as they are the same ones that have been issued repeatedly from the left as well as certain right-wing circles (e.g., Brent Scrowcroft) – the question now is what to do to extract our forces from this mess and perhaps save the country ... as in our country.

I am convinced that our presence in Iraq represents a "security subsidy" to Iraqis. They believe that, somehow, Uncle Sam will bail them out no matter how much havoc is sown by the sectarians, Baathists, criminals and jihadis. In short, in a very perverse way, our presence is the problem. That's why Congressman Jack Murtha had it right – the large U.S. footprint in Iraq keeps the insurgency shooting at the same time that ordinary Iraqis grow complacent. By the way, according to reports, a growing faction in the Pentagon shares my view.

The bottom line is this – if Iraqis are unwilling to step up, then it's time for America to step out. This is not about "cutting and running." Murtha's views, which I share, called for U.S. forces to withdraw, and then, with the consent of our genuine allies in the region such as Kuwait, Jordan and Turkey, to remain watchful. This would serve as a warning to Iran not to get too ambitious by exploiting the vacuum that our own ineptitude created in Iraq.

It's my new slogan: Iraqis step up, or America steps out. It might be only a bumper sticker, but it's also true.