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I feel like this about it... The Media makes hysterics of over 2,500 US soldiers killed in Iraq, but the number of soldiers actually killed by the enemy is much lower than that.

So the number of enemies that actually killed a US soldier is not that high to begin with. And you have to consider that some of those have either since been killed or left Iraq.

So just how many troop killers are we talking about here that would be effected? I don't think that many, and it depends on how culpable you want to hold them. Do we count the ones that pulled the trigger or set off the roadside bomb? Or are we counting all in a cell regardless if they personally killed anyone? So I think we are talking about a few hundred at this point.

Then we need to consider if we offer amnesty what benefits can we expect? It might help simmer down some of the insurgency from the Sunnis. That would make things a bit more difficult for the terrorists to operate. And the more we can squeeze the terrorists the more we can effectively wipe them out. Then it might be expected that we score some international diplomacy points as we display that we are showing restraint, and that will buy us some political capital for when we need to lower the hammer again.

And finally what does amnesty really mean? Right now we have no solid clues exactly who is the bad guy otherwise we go visit and blow them away. We offer amnesty today and in the future when loose mouths start wagging we take note and make their lives miserable in another way.

We offer them amnesty-shamnesty to serve our purpose now and then crack their skulls later.

Amnesty in Iraq? The Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds have been at eachother's throats for centuries. Do we really expect to see them settle down to live together under democracy?
Amnesty in America? From what I've heard about La Raca (?)
the illegal Latinos expect to take over this country. So we, too, may be in an armed dispute for the first time since the Civil War here. (Incidentally, for alot of U.S. citizens, including Freeperes, the Civil War is still going on, on the Internet anyway.)