California Conservative

That’s the thought posed by Captain Ed in his post about this article. Here’s what’s got everyone’s tongues wagging:

The leader of Iraq’s banned Baath party, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, has decided to join efforts by the Iraqi authorities to fight al-Qaeda, one of the party’s former top officials, Abu Wisam al-Jashaami, told pan-Arab daily Al Hayat. “Al-Douri has decided to sever ties with al-Qaeda and sign up to the programme of the national resistance, which includes routing Islamist terrorists and opening up dialogue with the Baghdad government and foreign forces,” al-Jashaami said.

Al-Douri has decided to deal directly with US forces in Iraq, according to al-Jashaami. He figures in the 55-card deck of “most wanted” officials from the former Iraqi regime issued by the US government. In return, for cooperating in the fight against al-Qaeda, al-Douri has asked for guarantees over his men’s safety and for an end to Iraqi army attacks on his militias.

Recent weeks have seen a first step in this direction, when Baathist fighters cooperated with Iraqi government forces in hunting down al-Qaeda operatives in the volatile Diyala province and in several districts of the capital, Baghdad.

Al-Douri was the King of Clubs in the now infamous deck of cards of Iraq’s most wanted. Turning him would be a huge deal because he had been working with AQI and various insurgent groups. As the article points out, his turning happened as a direct result of Gen. Petraeus’ success in Anbar and Diyala.

This is potentially huge on several levels. If Maliki says that this happened as a direct result of Gen. Petraeus’ surge, Democrats will be betwixt and between. Here’s what Hillary said about President Bush’s surge speech:

The President simply has not gotten the message sent loudly and clearly by the American people, that we desperately need a new course. The President has not offered a new direction, instead he will continue to take us down the wrong road, only faster. The President’s speech failed to adequately address the political situation in Iraq, rising sectarian violence, mounting strain on our military, growing Iranian influence, and festering divides over how to distribute oil revenues.

As I have said, as the American people have demanded, and as the facts on the ground require, we need a new course and an end to the current failed policy. I continue to urge a strategy that places pressure on the Iraqi government to resolve the political crisis through phased redeployment of U.S. troops, establishes an Iraqi Oil Trust to end the stalemate over oil, and pursues an aggressive diplomatic strategy including an international conference of the regional parties to further the task of Iraq’s stability.”

Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi issued a joint statement that sounded utterly defeatist:

“As many had foreseen, the escalation has failed to produce the intended results,” the two leaders wrote. “The increase in US forces has had little impact in curbing the violence or fostering political reconciliation. It has not enhanced Americas national security. The unsettling reality is that instances of violence against Iraqis remain high and attacks on US forces have increased. In fact, the last two months of the war were the deadliest to date for US troops.”

Months ago, Rush said that Democrats weren’t just betting on defeat. He said that they “owned defeat.” People might not like how the war was waged but they aren’t defeatists. They love winners.

This is potentially huge from the perspective that this might be the spark that’s needed to end the sectarian fighting and the insurgency. If it’s true that al-Douri has flipped allegiances, it also emasculates AQI. Another key thing that must happen is for Maliki to keep his promise of no retribution against al-Douri’s militias. If they’re brought into the government, then national reconciliation is possible.

Technorati Tags: al-Maliki, al-Douri, Reconciliation, AQI, Baathists, Hillary, Tikrit, Baghdad, Anbar Province, Diyala+Province, David Petraeus, Surge, Election 2008

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 22nd, 2007 at 11:05 pm and is filed under Author: Gary Gross, Election 2008, Hillary, Iraq, Military, Pelosi, Terrorism, W. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.