Iraq Leader Invites Insurgents To Talks

From the London Times,

The Prime Minister of Iraq will sit down for the first time next week with representatives of insurgent groups in his most concerted effort yet to quell the country’s sectarian war.

Nouri al-Maliki’s Government has asked insurgent leaders to send intermediaries to a national reconciliation conference, marking a new domestic drive to bring peace to Iraq.

It will pave the way for a subsequent conference outside Iraq, possibly in Damascus or Amman, with insurgent leaders themselves.

This is something that should have happened a long time ago, however various attempts have been frustrated by pressure from the U.S., where politicians feel domestic voters wouldn't approve of "talking to terrorists" no matter how much it might help in Iraq.

That U.S. pressure has now turned into a self-fulfilling prophecy as Iraq's Shiites see themselves as negotiating from a position of U.S.-backed strength against the Sunni community.

The conference will be remarkable for who is not invited as much as who is. While the Baath Party and its attendant groups of former army insurgents are invited, Al-Qaeda and the Islamist Jaysh Ansar al-Sunna are not. That's fair enough - but also absent will be the Mahdi Army and Badr Brigade, the two largest and most problemmatic Shiite militia groups.

The reason given?

Because the Shia-led Government believes that it can deal with them within its own communities.

Riiiiiight.