Posted on 12/13/2005 11:06:11 AM PST by jmc1969
Homegrown Iraqi insurgent groups are reaching out to the United States in the hope of launching a dialogue that would draw them into the political process and end their 2 1/2-year rebellion, according to U.S. officials and Iraqis close to the insurgency.
Spurred by fears of the growing influence of Iran and encouraged by signals from Washington that the United States will start drawing down troops next year, insurgents who see themselves as fighting for an Iraqi nationalist cause are looking for ways to distance themselves from the religious radicals who have dominated the insurgency, with a view to establishing a foothold in Iraq's political landscape.
"There is a difference between terrorists and the national Iraqi resistance," he said. "Zarqawi's group does nothing but suicide attacks and killing Iraqis. That's not resistance."
Now, 2 1/2 years after the invasion, Iraqi nationalist elements of the insurgency are realizing that simply ejecting American forces will not be enough to secure their interests in a new Iraq that is evolving into a nation with a very different identity to the one they had been fighting to bring back.
According to a former Iraqi corps commander who says he has influence over the insurgency, at one meeting of insurgent groups last summer, several Iraqi insurgent leaders suggested that "Iran is a bigger enemy of Iraq than America," and proposed that the insurgency refocus its priorities toward battling Iran.
"But they were overruled by Zarqawi," said the commander, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "The Iraqis, the national resistance, now have no say."
Al-Zarqawi's influence has steadily been diminished in recent months, by a combination of repeated U.S. military offensives against his strongholds in the western province of Anbar and by the beginnings of a rift between the homegrown Iraqi insurgency and the al-Qaida.
(Excerpt) Read more at macon.com ...
But...but...Howard Dean said.....
They want to cut a deal with US because the Iraqi Government coming in will deal differently.
but, but, but..this can't be..we're LOSING for cryin out loud..just ask murtha, kerry, klinton et. al...
Bring us Al-Zarqawi's bullet-riddled corpse, and we'll talk.
It's a quagmire.
Terrorist murderers are terrorist murderers, no matter how they describe themselves.
Your role in the new Iraq will be in the Military.....as a target drone.
April 1945, Himmler told Norbert Masur of the World Jewish Congress that Jews and National Socialists should "bury the hatchet".
Here we have has-been Republican Guard Baathists trying to get a piece of the action and all the media can see is something that may fit their template.
We are at war. It is a war for our survial. My son is in the Army. Why aren't our politicians and our institutions such as major media and institutions of higher learning recognizing what my kid can see?
Simple. Because it doesn't fit their template for progressive world government to supplant the Republic of our nation.
Oh Murtha is only trying to keep congress from investigating him. He doesn't care a flip about Iraq. He's in the CYA mode.
Trust an insurgent? You gotta be kidding.
Poor Dummies. Last night Tookie and now this!
Not a bad idea ... and throw in Osama Obama Bin Laden and we might "negotiate" with terrorists.
My sentiments exactly. The time for these so-called nationalists to help thier country has long past, after the first election a year ago they should have been on the band wagon. But they continued bombing their fellow citizens.
This story is just so much "putting a kind face" on your local terrorists.
They have thousands of iraqi deaths to answer for.
Sounds like a plan.
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