Iraqi Official Says Radical Review Needed

Mowaffak al Rubaie is Iraq's National Security Adviser. No single Iraqi has worked more closely with the U.S. since the start of the war, CBS News correspondent Elizabeth Palmer reports.

"What's going on in Iraq needs a radical review," Rubaie says. He believes there are three keys to success.

First, he says there should be a redeployment of U.S. troops. American troops should be pulled off Baghdad's streets and sent back to their bases, leaving the Iraqi Army to take full charge of security in the capital, he believes.

"Because two armies in the same battle space and the coordination is something, is really difficult," Rubaie says. "Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't."

In the past, when U.S. forces have withdrawn from some neighborhoods, the killing got worse as Iraqi forces either couldn't control — or actively helped — armed militias and death squads.

But secondly, says Rubaie, the militias can only be disarmed by negotiation — and all militia leaders, no matter how violent, must be included.

"We have no red lines on any person, individual, or groups or parties," Rubaie says.

Finally the talking shouldn't end with Iraq's militias. Rubaie says the U.S. needs to talk directly with the Iranians because they are funding the most powerful militias, undermining Baghdad's fragile control.

The Iranians, says Rubaie, must be convinced that if chaos reigns in Iraq, it may reign in the whole region.

"If the country splits up, it spill over to the neighboring countries," he says.

Most of all, al Rubaie is afraid his government has been pushed to the fringe of the Iraq Study Group's discussions, and that they'll be the last to find out what the new U.S. policy will be.