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March 25, 2005
Iraq's Insurgents ‘Seek Exit Strategy'
Great headline and encouraging article from the Financial Times of London today (HT: Drudge).
Sharif Ali Bin al-Hussein, who heads Iraq's main monarchist movement and is in contact with guerrilla leaders, said many insurgents including former officials of the ruling Ba'ath party, army officers, and Islamists have been searching for a way to end their campaign against US troops and Iraqi government forces since the January 30 election.Sharif wants to make sure that we all know that the insurgents he’s talking about are the good ones:
Unlike Mr Zarqawi's followers, who are thought to be responsible for the big suicide bomb attacks on Iraqi civilian targets, the other Sunni insurgents are more likely to plant bombs and carry out ambushes against security forces and US troops active near their homes.Genuine minutemen aren’t they? To the encouraging part of the article:
Sharif Ali said the success of Iraq's elections dealt the insurgents a demoralising blow, prompting them to consider the need to enter the political process.Hence this report from Reuters that the rate of American troop deaths have fallen 50 percent from pre-election levels.
Whether Iraqi government decides that it wants to include these thugs in the political process now is up to them. I would love to see the Iraqi’s vow to hunt down and prosecute every insurgent terrorist in Iraq; however, this concession that democracy has prompted a move to lay down arms and embrace the political process should be viewed as a positive development in the global war on terrorism. It’s one more example of the power of freedom to overcome tyranny and terror.
UPDATE: Austin Bay has an idea:
Fact is, turning in Zarqawi would be the Baghdad equivalent of Monopoly’s “Get Out of Jail Free Card” for the lower-level holdouts who engineer it.Interesting...
UPDATE: Austin Bay has an idea:
Fact is, turning in Zarqawi would be the Baghdad equivalent of Monopoly’s “Get Out of Jail Free Card” for the lower-level holdouts who engineer it.Interesting...
Posted by Rick at March 25, 2005 08:28 PM
Comments
I'll believe it when I see it.
Posted by: Kelly at March 25, 2005 08:37 PM
Kelly, you're right. Perhaps I was a bit too exhuberant about the news. I too will believe it when I see it; but, this raises another question: Are these folks to be welcomed back into mainstream Iraqi society? After spilling the blood of so many Iraqis and their liberators? If it truly means a repudiation of terrorist tactics and other violent and non-political means of "expression," then maybe its worth cutting a deal. But, how do we know that these folks won't play both sides ala the PLO?
Posted by: Rick Brady at March 25, 2005 09:47 PM