ONLY AQ LOSES:

Iraqi leader calls insurgents for talks to end the violence (Ned Parker, 11/23/06, Times of London)

The Prime Minister of Iraq will sit down for the first time next week with representatives of insurgent groups in his most concerted effort yet to quell the country’s sectarian war.

Nouri al-Maliki’s Government has asked insurgent leaders to send intermediaries to a national reconciliation conference, marking a new domestic drive to bring peace to Iraq.

It will pave the way for a subsequent conference outside Iraq, possibly in Damascus or Amman, with insurgent leaders themselves.

He has a big, though illusory, chip to trade: our withdrawal. It gives the Sunni an apparent victory to save face.

Posted by Orrin Judd at November 23, 2006 8:26 AM