The U.S. military has engaged in “very promising” face-to-face talks in Iraq with Sunni Muslim insurgents who want to stop fighting, a senior command adviser told The Examiner Wednesday.
Retired Army Gen. John Keane said six months ago the United States could finally identify the core group of “mainstream” Sunni insurgent leaders who created much of the opposition force that exist today.
Keane declined to identify the leaders, but said they are not former hardline regime enforcers of Saddam Hussein’s brutal rule. Instead, they are ex-government and military officials whose goal has been to resist Shiite rule and expel the Americans.
But after four years of war, the leaders now want to talk, Keane said.
“This is the very thing we wanted to happen – convince them they cannot win,” he said.
Among the insurgents’ key demands are a larger role in the Shiite-dominated government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and more Sunnis in the Iraqi Security Force.
“As part of reconciliation, at some point before they lay down their weapons and completely come in, they need to have some form of amnesty,” Keane said. “They are very distrustful they will end up in Shia jails.”
Keane, former Army vice chief of staff who has advised President Bush, returned last week from an 11-day fact-finding tour in Iraq. He conferred with Army Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander. He also visited neighborhoods in greater Baghdad where the coalition has beefed up forces in a bid to finally defeat various insurgent groups and al Qaeda terrorists.
Keane said the CIA, which had trouble for months identifying exactly who controls the Sunni cells, set up the Sunni-U.S. negotiations. Some Iraqis would represent themselves as such leaders, only to be exposed as pretenders.
The CIA managed to contact the right people and talks began.
“They are moving in the right direction,” the retired four-star general said. “We are in a lot better shape than we were six months ago.” Still, he added, “They are continuing to fight in the insurgency because that, after all, is providing them the leverage with us.”
The new U.S. strategy of confronting insurgents has resulted in increased casualties. This month saw 117 U.S. combat deaths, the most since November 2004 and the third highest monthly total in the 4-year-old war.
