June 29, 2006
DONE DEAL:
Insurgents offer cease-fire deal (STEVEN R. HURST AND QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA, June 29, 2006, AP)
Eleven Sunni insurgent groups have offered an immediate halt to all attacks -- including those on American troops -- if the United States agrees to withdraw foreign forces from Iraq in two years, insurgent and government officials told The Associated Press on Wednesday.Withdrawal is the centerpiece of a set of demands from the groups, which operate north of Baghdad in the heavily Sunni Arab provinces of Salahuddin and Diyala. Although much of the fighting has been to the west, those provinces are increasingly violent and attacks there have crippled oil and commerce routes.
The groups who've made contact have largely shunned attacks on Iraqi civilians, focusing instead on the U.S.-led coalition forces. Their offer coincides with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's decision to reach out to the Sunni insurgency with a reconciliation plan that includes an amnesty for fighters.
At a minimum it's helpful to make them free-fire zones. Posted by Orrin Judd at June 29, 2006 10:01 AM
I smell hudna.
Posted by: Sandy P at June 29, 2006 10:10 AMWe should take the deal. I'm pretty tired of our troops being reviled, and died for ungrateful people. If they want a civil war after we're gone, that is their choice. We should not deter them. It's better that they fight each other than fight us. Come to think of it, it's a mistake to intervene in Europe in the '40s. Now we know the French love the Germans, and the Brits have no problems living under the French thumb. Why waste the whole generation of Americans "saving" someone who hate us?
Posted by: ic at June 29, 2006 3:00 PM