Amnesty For Iraqi Insurgents?

On Monday I posted an assessment of the current state of the counter-insurgency in Iraq, which has developed an interesting discussion in comments over at the Unpaid Punditry Corps. It was with that discussion in mind - what could be done, in any way whatsoever, to give Iraq the space and time it needed to find peace without gutting the American and British armies in the process - that I noticed an article from AP today that moves to open up an amnesty programme for supporters of the Iraqi insurgency are progressing apace.

The AP story runs as follows:

U.S. and Iraqi officials are considering difficult-to-swallow ideas — including amnesties for their enemies — as they look for ways to end the country's rampant insurgency and isolate extremists wanting to start a civil war.

Negotiations have just begun between U.S. and Iraqi officials on drafting an amnesty policy, which would reach out to Iraqi militants fighting U.S. forces, say officials in both the Iraqi and American governments. But foreign extremists like Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, responsible for Iraq's bloodiest attacks, would not be offered any amnesty, the Iraqi and U.S. authorities told The Associated Press in recent days. The amnesty proposal is seen as a key weapon to split the insurgency between Iraqi and non-Iraqi lines and further alienate foreign fighters like al-Zarqawi.

A Sunni umbrella group, the National Dialogue Council, has been acting as a go-between for Iraqi and Coalition officials keen to seperate Al Qaida and the "religious jihad", more of which is composed of foreign fighters, from the predominantly indigent insurgent groups with more simple, mationalistic motives. Their leader, legislator Salih al-Mutlak, says that they have spoken to "about 80 percent of the Iraqi resistance in different parts of the country" who are in the main keen to meet an agreement and lay down their arms. In return, they would expect clear commitments that attacks against Sunni cities will stop; that thousands of detainees will be released from U.S.-run prisons; and - most importantly - that the U.S.-led occupation will end.

Which raises the prospect that people who have killed American troops could sit around the negotiating table in due course.

On Tuesday, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said the Iraqis will have the final say on who might receive amnesty, declining to say whether he would protest amnesty for Iraqis who had killed American soldiers.

"These are tough decisions they're going to have to make, and they're going to have to live with the decisions they make," Rumsfeld said during a Pentagon press conference.

Still, he said, "It would be a perfectly understandable thing to me for them, a sovereign nation, to say that they would like to find a way to make sure that more people are engaged inside the tent rather than outside the tent."
...
I think eventually we will probably talk with people who have killed Americans," said Kenneth Katzman, an expert on the Persian Gulf region with the U.S. Congressional Research Service. "We may not see anybody at the table who has killed U.S. soldiers but we will see groups represented who have killed Americans."

Now I know that the standard line is "we don't negotiate with terrorists" and many, no doubt, will see this possibility as unacceptable. However, the real line is "we will not negotiate with anyone who is still a terrorist - terrorists who have become mainstream are just fine." And that's fine by me, to be honest, and I am sure it will be fine with the "terrorist - appeasing" British government, who have historically preferred reapproachment to carpet bombing as a solution to insurgency. This move gives hope for a true breakthrough in Iraq, in time to take the pressure off Coalition forces before they are rendered combat-ineffective for years.

And oh, by the way, Zarqawi hates it, for he knows this is a greater threat to his power than any number of helicopter gunships.

Let us all remember that there is a lot of precedent for negotiating with insurgents. Perhaps the greatest example of all is of the leader of an armed insurgency who killed hundreds of occupying troops, including the bombing of a headquarters building which killed over 90. That insurgent later became the leader of a political party in his home nation and later, leader of the country itself. Eventually, he even won the Nobel Peace Prize.

His name? Menachem Begin, head of the Irgun group who fought the British in Palestine during the late 40's.