The question is, when will they be ready?
According to the Washington Times (free reg required), an anonymous US official who “has spent months in Iraq” and has spoken to many “fence sitting” Sunnis, says the Sunnis will turn against the foreigners when they’re political demands are satisfied.
The official also said the Sunnis are demanding that Shi’ite security forces cease what the Sunnis consider harassing search-and-seizure measures that target innocent Iraqis.
“We’re getting a lot of bad guys,” the official said. “Are non-bad guys being killed? Absolutely. … A civil war has started to a degree.”
These discussions with Sunni groups has apparently been officially OK’ed by Condeleeza Rice and the Administration as a new tactic to beat the insurgency.
I have to say, it’s the first smart tactic I’ve heard since the start of the invasion. We can only hope it works… and that the number of Iraqis and American soldiers killed between now and the supposed time of uprising by Sunnis against the foreigners is kept to a minimum.
I for one have great faith in the intelligense and creativity of the Iraqi people. They will work out the political problems and get the constitution completed and voted on schedule. As they progress in these negotiations among the various factors of their society the Sunnis will be more and more instrumental in putting an end to the “insurrection”. Too many regular Iraqi citizens are being murdered and for what? A return to power of the same men that the Iraqis were so glad to be rid of? A year from now the landscape of Iraq will look much more hospitable to a self-governing and capable Iraqi society.
Most of the blather going on right now will seem pretty insignifcant in the light of the inevitable political stability now seen emerging among Shia’a, Kurd and Sunni.