Huge: 11 "Insurgent" Groups Offer Ceasefire In Exchange For Two-Year Timetable For US Withdrawal

I've got news for these idiots. If they weren't attacking US troops and Iraqi citizens, we'd have been out of there a year and a half ago. Their attacks and terrorism aren't driving us out of Iraq; they're keeping us there.

So I don't see a downside, assuming this is a legitimate offer and they can and will stop attacks. And give up the remaining Al Qaedaists in their midst.

Eleven Sunni insurgent groups have offered to halt attacks on the U.S.-led military if the Iraqi government and President Bush set a two-year timetable for withdrawing all foreign troops from the country, insurgent and government officials told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

The demand is part of a broad offer from the groups, who 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 have become increasingly violent and the attacks there have regularly crippled oil and commerce routes.

Unfortunately, the groups do not represent all insurgents:

The groups do not include the powerful Islamic Army in Iraq, Muhammad Army and the Mujahedeen Shura Council, the umbrella label for eight militant groups including al-Qaida in Iraq. But the new offer comes at a time when Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government is reaching out to militant Sunnis, including a new amnesty plan for insurgent fighters.

Al-Maliki, in remarks broadcast on national television Wednesday, did not issue an outright rejection of the timetable demand but said it was unrealistic because he could not be certain when the Iraqi army and police would be strong enough to assume full responsibility for the country's security.

Bush's "lack of a plan" seems to be working.

Thanks to Brett.

posted by Ace at 02:50 PM

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