Former Iraqi Official Says Two Groups Willing to Discuss Ending Violence (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/07/AR2005060701568.html)

Could this be a crack in the insurgencies armor? If this is true … it’s a start.
"We told them, if you keep shooting without saying what you demand, you are going to be always a target," he said in an interview. "Now the government can sit with them and see what they need. If they want to deal with the security situation, this is a chance."
“Broad based” support for the insurgency has always been iffy at best. Maybe these freedom fighters finally realize Saddam is not going to make one of those patented recoveries. Also maybe they finally realize that there will never be any “broad based” support for muslims killing muslims as a legitimate tactic.

But most of all maybe they have decided that a piece of the pie is better than no pie at all which is what they will have if they don’t join in the political process that will go forward no matter what they do.
Asked what the insurgent groups wanted, he said their demands would include a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops and steps to reduce the influence of neighboring Iran, whose Shiite Muslim-led government has close ties to Iraq's new leaders.If this is their demands ... they seem to be reasonable demands. Something that can be met with some work.

Of course there will always be a group of fanatics that will continue killing muslims and using Saddams old theory of fear is the best way to keep the common man down. They will stick with the premise that it worked like a charm in the past and will continue to work in the future.

But there will never be "broad based" support for muslims killing muslims. The only real tactic used up to this point ... ;)

This is good news then. Im glad they've finally decided to do something about it. If the demands are met, then Iraq is definitely looking to a better, if not stable, future.

But if they join the puppet government, wouldn't they then be classified as 'collaborators' and couldn't they be legit. killed.

Source of report A former minister in Iraq's interim governments.,Aiham Alsammarae, another tested puppet.
Followed with the comment
Laith Kubba, a spokesman for Prime Minister Ibrahim Jafari, said that in recent months, the government had made preliminary contact with representatives of some insurgent groups. But he said he was unaware of Alsammarae's proposal. "I have not heard from him or any group he represents," Kubba said.
The reasonable demand of the Iraqis: You invader, occupiers quit Iraq.
You showed your concern about the killing of Iraqis and shed crocodiles tears but kept your mouth shut about the core problem.
What is your opinion about American Invaders?
When they are going to quit Iraq?

More movement to include the sunnis in the new government (http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4&section=0&article=65154&d=10&m=6&y=2005)

The "unelected" sunnis have demanded 25 seats ... the "elected" officials say ... lets talk about it and made a goodwill jester of an additional 13 which will give the sunnis 15 ... the same amount of seats as the "elected" kurds.

The negotiations are on ...

It appears more and more that the sunnis are seeing that they have two choices.

1. Be part of the government going forward that they cannot stop and have a voice.

2. Continue to fight the proccess and have no say.

How much of an affect this will have on the home grown insurgency? Time will tell, but you would have to think it will have a positive affect for the overall security situation.

Heres some more by an Iraqi blogger ...

http://www.windsofchange.net/archives/006877.php

Iraqi blogger Mohammed, is noticing increasing number of announcements being posted on the walls of Sunni mosques in Baghdad, encouraging the faithful to participate in the next election, scheduled for January 2005. Mohammed also reports this:

Friday prayers and the future elections.
I have noticed lately that many announcements are being posted on the walls in Sunni mosques encouraging people to participate in the coming elections-that are planned to be in January 2006-and to not miss the chance like last time.

I think the Sunni trend had made up its mind about this subject after the latest dispute inside the "association of Muslim scholars" after which it became obvious the decreasing influence of Al-Dhari's trend (who's out of the country right now along with his son) and the increasing influence of the moderate trend that favors being part of the political process.

I have pointed this out earlier and I expect the near future to bring up the results of this development in the form of less violence in the usual hot spots.
It's also become clear that the association has taken a firm decision not to take active part in the political process and had joined the "committee of national reconciliation" as a supervisor only and there's a frank invitation for the association to limit its role to religious advisory and preaching (as it should be).

For the fourth week in a line, the "department of Sunni property" which is an official entity that takes care of Sunni mosques and Sunni heritage has been distributing inquiry forms to the people who attend the Friday prayers as such prayers are usually attended by more people than other week days.
The inquiry (or poll) includes four questions:

1-would you like to have a role in drafting the constitution?
2-would you like to participate in the next round of elections?
3-would you prefer to see a unified committee for the Sunni?
4-Are you with the call for joining the Iraqi army and police?
*You can submit any suggestions you have.

The results I could take a look at in Baghdad were as follows:
In "Ghaffar Al-Thunoob" mosque in A'adhamiyah, 273 people filled the forms and 96% of them answered the 4 questions with "yes".

In "Al-Yakeen" mosque in Al-Sha'ab quarter I wasn't able to get the exact number of the people who took the poll but the percentage of those who answered the 4 questions with "yes" was 92%.

In "Haj Ahmed Ra'oof" mosque in Al-Baladiyat quarter south east of Baghdad, 95% of those who took the poll answered all the questions with "yes".

No doubt these results suggest that a high percentage of the Sunni people will most likely vote in the coming elections especially considering that these answers come from committed Sunni Muslims who regularly attend mosques.

The 2006 election will obviously witness a very hot competition and we're going to see a lot of action, i.e. the more players, the better the game will be while those who put their bucks on the failure of the change in Iraq would better forget about their winning.

Mohammed.

http://iraqthemodel.blogspot.com/2005/05/friday-prayers-and-future-elections.html



And to answer your question shams ... the sooner the iraqis can get their act together to deal with the imported violence that you whole heartly support ... the sooner the US troops will be gone.