I've long talked of getting elements of the Iraqi insurgency to come in from the cold and separate them from the enemy that can only be killed, jailed, or driven from Iraq. The objective is to end the insurgency and allow the Iraqi government to function--not to kill every last person currently resisting.
With elements of the enemy fighting each other, the chances for flipping some of the enemy grows stronger:
Northeast of Baghdad, an al-Qaida-linked suicide bomber blew himself up Friday in a house sheltering members of the rival 1920 Revolution Brigades, killing two of the other militants and wounding four in the strife-ridden city of Baqouba, police said.
The developments were the latest in an apparently growing Sunni insurgent power struggle as U.S. and Iraqi officials try to isolate the terror network by turning other militant groups and tribal leaders against it. The tactic has proven relatively successful in the western Anbar province, once considered the heartland of the Sunni insurgency, and Washington and the Iraqi government are trying to replicate it elsewhere.
Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno, the No. 2 U.S. commander in Iraq, said Thursday that U.S. military officers were talking with Iraqi militants — excluding al-Qaida — about cease-fires and other arrangements to try to stop the violence. He said he thinks 80 percent of Iraqis, including Sunni insurgents and Shiite militants, can reach reconciliation with each other, although most al-Qaida operatives will not.
This is all part of that 80% non-military means that the military portion of the war enables. The anti-war side routinely misinterprets this ratio of effort to conclude that the war can't be won by military means. This is true to a point, but the military component is absolutely necessary, and what we are in is a war despite the importance of non-military weapons to defeat the enemy.
I've commented on signs in the past that indicated the Sunni Arabs were finally starting to flip to support the government or at least stop fighting. It has yet to happen so I am hesitant to say that this development is different. But it sure does seem more broad-based than earlier hints of flipping over.
The only question is whether we have the time to see this trend through to support it and accelerate it.
