The result is that these anti-war people, though having once supported this war, are strangely reluctant to actually win the war. And their love of talk doesn't seem to extend to helping Sunni Arabs fight al Qaeda. They are convinced this means we are losing, too. If I didn't know any better, I'd say these anti-war types just want talk in order to arrange our surrender on terms acceptable to the enemy.
Hamas actually gives us a lesson in how talking with enemies should be handled. Hamas offered amnesty to Fatah fighters after executing a small number. And Gazans reacted to the Hamas victory:
But the violence, which came despite a Hamas offer of amnesty for Fatah, was sporadic. ...
A resident of a Hamas-dominated neighborhood, identifying himself only as Yousef for fear of reprisal by his neighbors, said Gazans would always back the winner, regardless of ideology.
"Today everybody is with Hamas because Hamas won the battle. If Fatah had won the battle they'd be with Fatah. We are a hungry people, we are with whoever gives us a bag of flour and a food coupon," said Yousef, 30. "Me, I'm with God and a bag of flour."
This is how reconciliation should work in Iraq. It is not about reversing the enemy's defeat with coalition governments. We should talk to the enemy to accept their surrender, and they will agree because it is safer to go along with the offer of amnesty than it is to keep fighting.
So we must defeat the Sunni Arab gunmen, execute after trials and due process the leading Baathists of the old regime, smash the jihadis who enrage the Shias, and contain the Shia death squads who terrorize Sunni Arabs.
This will deprive the Sunni Arab gunmen of support, allow Sunni Arabs to turn on al Qaeda and the Sunni gunmen safely, and deprive the Shia death squads of a reason to exist.
