Iraq Prime Minister Proposes Reconciliation
Iraq Prime Minister Nouri Maliki has proposed a controversial 28 point plan intended to end sectarian violence and the insurgency. The most politicized parts of the plan include:
- amnesty “for those not proven involved in crimes, terrorist activities and war crimes against humanity”
- releasing thousands of suspected insurgents who “pledge to condemn violence and vow to back” the government and advocates “canceling all red lines” that exclude Iraqis from political life provided they did not commit crimes.
The Prime Minister said:
“We realize that there is a segment of those who rebelled against the righteousness, rational and logical and took Satan’s route. To those who want to build and reform, we present hands that carry olive branches.”
Prime Minister Maliki did not suggest amnesty for insurgents with blood on their hands but rather “bolstering national solidarity and unity and spreading peaceful and smooth co-existence amid diversity in order to heal the wounds wrought by terrorism.”
The initiatives of pardon will not be extended to al-Qaeda, Saddam loyalists or insurgents whose attacks target Iraqi civilians. All other amnesties would be “context dependent,” granted by balancing a person or group’s potential future threat with past actions. In presenting the plan to the Iraqi parliament, al-Maliki said that insurgent killers would not escape justice regardless of whether their victims were Iraqis or U.S.-led coalition forces.
“The launch of this national reconciliation initiative should not be read as a reward for the killers and criminals or acceptance of their actions,” said PM Maliki.
U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said “All wars must come to an end and hostility has to be replaced by reconciliation and difficult decisions have to be made by all.†He went on to say that the plan would not give cover to insurgents who had attacked Americans:
“Those who’ve lost their lives to liberate this country and provide a historic opportunity, their sacrifice will be respected,” Khalilzad said.
Media headlines and US politicians are accusing Iraq of granting amnesty to insurgents who have killed US troops, but this is not the case.
“How can you call this amnesty?” said Sadoon al-Zubaidy, a Sunni Arab from the former Parliament. “We’re talking about releasing people who are either proven innocent or who have not been charged with anything. We have a twisted kind of logic here.”
Senator Carl Levin, D-Michigan, who said “We represent the majority†after three major defeats in the House and Senate to set a timetable for withdrawal in Iraq last week, has this to say about the Prime Minister’s plan:
“For heaven’s sake, we liberated that country. We got rid of a horrific dictator. We’ve paid a tremendous price. More than 2,500 Americans have given up their lives. The idea that they should even consider talking about amnesty for people who have killed people who liberated their country is unconscionable.”
SIDEBAR: *We* liberated Iraq? *We* got rid of a horrific dictator? Isn’t this the wrong war at the wrong time? Aren’t we were occupiers, not liberators? Wasn’t Saddam a bad guy, but not bad nough to have gone into Iraq? Add the idea of Democrats opposing amnesty and Levin’s comments become comedic.
The fact is that the Prime Minister realizes it may not be possible to simply kill all the insurgents to procure lasting peace in Iraq, and that there are probably many who chose insurgency as the lesser of 2 evils, not because they are devoted to the insurgency itself. For those there is hope.
In the end, as “unconscionable†as the Prime Minister’s initiatives may sound to Americans, it is not. Democrats are attempting to confuse the facts with sensationalism and equate it with another failure in Iraq; i.e., “You cannot make a Muslim country into a democracy.†Yet what has happened is exactly what we went into Iraq to do: create a free and democratic Iraq that governs itself. While Democrats have previously mocked President Bush’s plan in Iraq as “making Iraq into a little Americaâ€, clearly Iraq is not a puppet of the US but is thinking on its own. This plan by the Prime Minister is proof that Democracy can work even in Iraq. Will the proposal of reconciliation work? Time will tell, but at least Iraq is doing it their way.
ADDITIONAL READING:
The Insurgency
Iraqi Premier Offers ‘Reconciliation,’ but No New Plans for Amnesty
Iraq The Model: “Who Should Recognize Whom?”
Cross-posted at Amy’s Blog
June 26th, 2006 at 8:29 am
I seem to recall there was an angry outburst when someone named Lincoln suggested before the end of the Civil War that it would be a good (and I think he even used the term “Christian”) thing to grant amnesty to all the “insurgents” that had been killing American soldiers. Not just 2,500 soldiers, either.
Am I suggesting amnesty for all? Not at all. But please, try to keep this in perspective.
And the donkeys suggesting anything is laughable, just like they (the donkeys) are.
June 26th, 2006 at 8:49 am
Iraq PM offers olive branch to insurgents
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki offered an olive branch to insurgents who join in rebuilding Iraq and