Success in Anbar suggests US leave Iraq.

James Zumwalt details a small but exciting and extremely important success in Iraq (“The awakening” Commentary 2-25-07), but his good news from Anbar province that Oliver North originally reported, fails to properly identify the source of success, or the vital importance of US policy makers acknowledging the real source.

Anbar Province Sunnis “condemnation of al Qaeda’s actions”, their “declaration” of “solidarity with the coalition” and their “declaration of war against al Qaeda” is not a result of anything US forces have done. This sliver of progress is solely a result of al Qaeda’s actions. Their “taking control” of the province and “turning” their “brutality against the [Anbar] tribes created an Iraqi backlash that was as inevitable as a backlash against our own taking control of Iraq and the brutality of a ‘shock and awe’ invasion and Abu Grebe detentions.

This turn around in Anbar is a benefit to our forces but it is also a predicable outcome that should put to rest the fears that withdraw of US forces from Iraq will result in al Qaeda taking over Iraq as a new base of terrorist training and outreach operations. It appears that even Sunni Iraqi’s have a different plan for their nation that what Osama Bin Laden has planned. It’s time for us to get out of the way and allow both Sunni’s and Shiites to see who their real enemy is.

David Firshein.