October 7, 2004
NO APPOINTMENT IN SAMARRA FOR THEM:
Fallujah Group Comes to Table: Talks Also Underway in Sadr City (Karl Vick, October 7, 2004, Washington Post)
Iraqi insurgents from Fallujah are in intense negotiations with the country's interim government to hand over control of the city to Iraqi troops, in hopes of averting a bloody military battle for the city of 300,000 that has become a haven for foreign guerrillas and a symbol of the limits of Baghdad's authority, according to representatives of both sides."We have met representatives from Fallujah," the interim deputy prime minister, Barham Salih, said Wednesday. "We have had detailed discussion with these representatives, and we have agreed on a road map or a framework to facilitate the resolution of this conflict in Fallujah."
The talks apparently gained momentum Wednesday after the mujaheddin shura -- or council of holy warriors -- that now governs Fallujah voted overwhelmingly to accept the broad terms demanded by Iraq's government. By a vote of 10 to 2, the council agreed to eject foreign fighters, turn over all heavy weapons, dismantle checkpoints and allow the Iraqi National Guard to enter the city.
In return, the city would not face the kind of U.S.-led. military offensive that reclaimed the central Iraqi city of Samarra from insurgents last week, a prospect that one senior Iraqi official said clearly grabbed the attention of the Fallujah delegation.
U.S. troops would remain outside the city and end the airstrikes that have shaken residential neighborhoods on an almost daily basis in recent weeks, according to one account of the terms now on the table.
"The government -- the president, the prime minister and the defense minister -- are serious in trying to reach a peaceful solution, and we are, too," said Khalid Hamoud Jumaili, the leader of an insurgent group known as Mohammad's Army. Jumaili is one of six Fallujah residents who have been traveling to Baghdad in the past week to negotiate a peaceful end to the standoff.
"Tomorrow I am going back to Fallujah to discuss some issues which are still not solved," Jumaili said in a brief telephone interview.
If a concrete agreement emerged -- and proved successful -- it would be a substantial boost for the interim government and for prospects for holding nationwide elections in January.
Good news from Iraq just gets better. Posted by Orrin Judd at October 7, 2004 12:07 AM
The Marines still need to clean house. More negotiations with these monsters is idiocy.
Posted by: GG at October 7, 2004 1:41 AMI'm sure it would shock the major media that we could win, but win we will.
Fred (O'Hara) Jacobsen
Posted by: Fred Jacobsen (San Fran) at October 7, 2004 1:47 AMWe will win. My fear, as GG notes, is that we negotiate with them only to have to come back in and deal with them again and again again as they don't live up to their part of the bargain.
Posted by: AWW at October 7, 2004 6:54 AMWon't that be up to the Iraqi government ?
Once the US and Iraqi elections are over, I expect that the use of American ground forces will go way down, although we might still do air and artillery strikes at the Iraqis' behest.
Posted by: Michael Herdegen at October 7, 2004 7:21 AMGG;
As the others have said. But we need to keep the big picture in mind, which is a liberal democracy in control of Iraq. Ultimately that means that Iraqis will have to handle internal security on their own. We need to let them try.
Posted by: Annoying Old Guy at October 7, 2004 10:35 AMWell, so much for the theory "If we kill them, it will only cause more outrage and draw more fighters to their cause". I guess there are some terrorists who really do want to live.
Posted by: Robert Duquette at October 7, 2004 11:56 AMMr. Duquette;
I'm not sure that's the case. It seems more likely that it is the local population that's decided it's not worth dieing to help the jihadis. In the early days when defiance was cheap and one could pretend that the jihadis might win, it could make sense to support them. Now, given how the jihadis run things, the growing power of the provisional government and the demonstration of capability and will in Najaf and Samarra, that weights in that calculation are a bit different. The jihadis simply cannot function without at least the grudging acquiesence of the local population. Note that the ejection of foreign fighters would be the locals selling out the death-lovers.
Posted by: Annoying Old Guy at October 7, 2004 12:00 PMThe key element is ejecting the foreign fighters. What if they don't go? And eject them where? Safe conduct to the Syrian border, so they can infiltrate again?
A gesture of good will, a confidence-building gesture, would be helpful. Like STOP ALL THE SUICIDE BOMBINGS! And the ROADSIDE BOMBS! And the BEHEADINGS!
I still think we will need to quarantine Fallujah, give the women and children and non-combattant men 7 days to exit the cordon, then treat the entire city as a free-fire zone.
Would the militia in Fallujah allow the women and children to leave, if it were in prelude to a massive American attack ?
Posted by: Michael Herdegen at October 8, 2004 3:03 AM