So We Do Negotiate With Terrorists

I guess we learned what other colonialists in Iraq learned. You can't let them damned Shiites have all the power. So, now we're at the table with terrorists.

American officials in Iraq are in face-to-face talks with high-level Iraqi Sunni insurgents, NEWSWEEK has learned. Americans are sitting down with 'senior members of the leadership' of the Iraqi insurgency, according to Americans and Iraqis with knowledge of the talks (who did not want to be identified when discussing a sensitive and ongoing matter). The talks are taking place at U.S. military bases in Anbar province, as well as in Jordan and Syria. 'Now we have won over the Sunni political leadership,' says U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad. 'The next step is to win over the insurgents.' The groups include Baathist cells and religious Islamic factions, as well as former Special Republican Guards and intelligence agents, according to a U.S. official with knowledge of the talks. Iraq's insurgent groups are reaching back. 'We want things from the U.S. side, stopping misconduct by U.S. forces, preventing Iranian intervention,' said one prominent insurgent leader from a group called the Army of the Mujahedin, who refused to be named because of the delicacy of the discussions. 'We can't achieve that without actual meetings.

Bush is being a hard ass about not dealing with the newly elected Hamas leadership for Palestinians. So, I guess it is only a matter of time before we're at the table with them too!