Iraq Insurgents Offer to Stop Attacks

I agree. They would need the full cooperation of the Mujahedeen, Islamic Army and Muhammad Army as well though, or it would be meaningless.

Yes, this is actually really interesting. The headline took me by surprise actually. Definitely not something I was expecting to see. Sounds hopeful anyway and perhaps hints of cooperation here.

Arguably these are not terrorists, as they are fighting primarily against an occupying military force and civilians collaborating with the occupying military force. They are labelled terrorists because they are not sanctioned by a recognized government and because they use guerrilla tactics. Negotiating with them over what to do with Iraq seems unlikely to increase terrorist activities in the United States, although it may increase insurgency in other (and future) United States occupied areas.

I suspect the motive for this offer is not benign. It's a basic strategy. Let your enemies weaken or destroy each other and then finish off whatever remains. If the United States withdraws in two years, these groups will still exist and will not have wasted resources on fighting the United States. With the United States out of the way these groups will be better able to turn these resources against Iraq's new secular government and on other competing groups. These groups would have two years to gather resources without having to worry about the United States hunting them down. This will also give the Sunni insurgent groups an eventual advantage against other groups which continue to engage the United States and the provisional government.

Yeah, that's a good point. But the violence has to end eventually somehow. We need to make sure that the Iraqi government and military are secure so that we can get out of there. That being said we can't leave prematurely and let the new government collapse into chaos.

It's fine we don't have to negotiate, we can allow the Iraqi government to do so for us with whatever advice they want given in the background. If the Iraqi government is convinced a deal will make the security situation stable enough for them to handle it from then on then it's a win and we would leave anyway.

That policy hasn't really gotten America anywhere yet though has it? The American government has this problem of not being able to distinguish between insurgents, freedom fighters and extremists. The American government treats them all the same and offers them no concessions on anything. Perhaps if the American government could at least hold their head up high and admit their mistakes then perhaps the ball can get rolling again.

You dont negotiate with terorists in a hostage situation, you do negotiate with the enemy to try to end a war.

The United States military has bases around the world.

There are still troops in Korea, Japan, Germany to name a few. It will be a long time until the United States leaves Iraq. We may never leave.

there are several groups we are fighting
people who see us as occupiers(this will help)
And Islamic insurgents on jihad(this wont help)
and people that want to disrupt the process(this wont help)
and then sectarian violence, which is mainly an Iraqi problem.(wont help that either)
But all in all think this is good.

Yes it's terrible when people jump to conclusions isn't it :)

Yes it's terrible when people jump to conclusions isn't it :)

Sure, but it is easy to be cynical here .....unfortunately.

From Washington Post

Last week the Senate voted 79 to 19 in favor of an amendment introduced by Bill Nelson of Florida and Robert Menendez of New Jersey opposing amnesty for Iraqi insurgents who fought against the United States. All 19 opponents of the Menendez-Nelson amendment were Republicans, including conservative stalwarts such as Jeff Sessions of Alabama, Jon Kyl of Arizona, Tom Coburn of Oklahoma and John Cornyn of Texas. We think the opponents have it right.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/op-ed/20060628-094622-7734r.htm

According to Dahr Jamail, the major Iraqi resistance groups rejected Maliki's "plan" because they do not recognize the Iraqi "government" as a legitimate entity. These same resistance groups understand that under international law, the current Iraqi "government" controls nothing outside of the "green zone," and its existence violates the Geneva Conventions.

In addition, the Iraqi puppet government's "army," composed of various sectarian and/or ethnic groups, rather than being an effective, cohesive military, is nothing more than a haphazard collage of militias and death squads loyal only to their own various militia or religious leaders.

That's a brilliant plan.

Brilliant in it's simplicity, really.

I wrote an article around the idea:

Read it here, if you're interested.