Iraq War: Giving peace a chance?

"I think we are winning.  Okay?  I think we're definitely winning.  I think we've been winning for some time." - Gen. Richard Myers, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on the Iraq War 04/26/05

"I just wonder if they will ever tell us the truth." - Harold Casey, Louisville, KY, October 2004.

Probably not.  (Probably not giving peace a chance.  Also probably not on ever telling us the truth.  Or that we've been winning all along.)

But if there's going to be a settlement short of civil war, massive ethnic cleansing and/or the breakup of Iraq, peace talks have to happen some time or other.  The current news, from Insurgents offer to halt attacks in Iraq by Steven Hurst and Qassim Abdul-Zahra St. Petersburg Times/AP 06/28/06:

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.

What's more immediately interesting to me than the offer itself is the fact that 11 different insurgent groups coordinated enough to put together a unified position.

Plus, the article mentions the names of a number of different insurgent groups, which you rarely see in reporting on the Iraq War:

The Islamic Army in Iraq, Muhammad Army and the Mujahedeen Shura Council - the umbrella group that covers eight militant groups including al-Qaida in Iraq - were not party to any offers to the government. ...

Eight of the 11 insurgent groups banded together to approach al-Maliki's government under The 1920 Revolution Brigade, which has claimed credit for killing U.S. troops in the past. All 11, working through intermediaries, have issued identical demands, according to insurgent spokesmen and government officials. ...

Besides the 1920 Revolution Brigades, the eight include Abtal al-Iraq (Heroes of Iraq), the 9th of April Group, al-Fateh Brigades, al-Mukhtar Brigades, Salahuddin Brigades, Mujahedeen Army and the Brigades of the General Command of the Armed Forces. The three other groups are small organizations that also mainly operate in areas north of Baghdad.

"Wars are easy to get into, but hard as hell to get out of." - George McGovern and Jim McGovern 06/06/05