A Sunni militia in Iraq is inevitable and appropriate

"As bad as things are in Iraq, there is every possibility they could get worse in coming months. That's not a rationale for pulling American troops out; quite the opposite, in my view. But it does argue for the Bush administration to think more creatively about how to craft a sustainable strategy for Iraq and the region.

The central problem in Iraq is the same one the United States encountered when it invaded the country in March 2003. That conundrum can be summed up in a phrase attributed to a top U.S. commander a week or so into the war: "Where are the Iraqis?" By that, he meant: Where are the Iraqi generals and troops the CIA had hoped would switch sides as coalition forces moved toward Baghdad?

The failure of this secret intelligence effort to recruit Iraqi military commanders to assist the postwar transition is one of the least-understood aspects of the war. U.S. and British agents worked frantically in the months before the war to convince Iraqi generals to lower their tank barrels as coalition forces approached, and come over. The hope was that some of them might emerge as transitional leaders."
The Daily Star