Sunnis Ready to Cooperate With U.S.
Yes, you read right. That’s the title of Paul Martin’s article in yesterday’s Washington Times, which, if it’s true, is a major turning point in stopping the insurgency which has troubled the Iraqi people.
Key Sunni Muslim leaders in Iraq’s violent Anbar province have concluded that their interests lie in cooperating with the United States, and they are seeking to extend a temporary truce honored by most insurgent groups for last week’s elections. But at the same time, they are demanding specific steps by the U.S. military, including a reduction in military raids and an increase in development projects for their vast desert province that stretches from the edge of Baghdad to the Syrian and Jordanian borders.
They say that the devil’s in the details but if the details can be worked out and a trust can be forged between all parties, I’d snap this deal up in half a heartbeat. If these Sunnis end their insurgent activities in exchange for some badly-needed development projects, then let’s get the projects started yesterday.
If that happened, President Bush could benefit bigtime politically. More importantly, though, Iraqis could focus on building their infrastructure and living normal lives without fear of daily retribution for joining in the political process.
“The resistance announced it would protect polling stations and would not allow a single group to attack them, and it respected its promise. “We thank them in the name of the Iraqi Accordance Front,” Mr. al-Dulaimi told reporters in Baghdad, referring to the electoral bloc he leads.
Fair enough. They made a promise to prevent the violence and they delivered. That’s definitely a sign of a good-faith effort and they should be rewarded for it. I still wouldn’t give them everything they want until a stronger trust can be built, though. Given the right incentives, I believe that al-Dulaimi’s group could be brought fully into the political proceses.
A prominent Sunni religious leader in Anbar province, Sheik Abed al-Latif Hemaiym, told The Times in an interview in Amman that Sunnis were prepared to work with the Americans. “We now believe we must get on good terms with the Americans,” Sheik Hemaiym said. “As Arab Sunnis, we believe that within this hot area of Iraq, facing challenges from neighboring nations who want to swallow us, especially the Iranians, we feel we have no alternative.”
Read the entire article. If this pans out, this is the biggest step towards forming a functioning Iraq other than toppling Saddam.
As a footnote, this proves that Murtha’s statements were wrong about us being the problem, not the solution. It sounds like Murtha couldn’t be more wrong, actually.
Cross-posted at LetFreedomRing