OLD NEWS GETS WIDER COVERAGE
Report: U.S., Iraq insurgents talked

From the AP via the Houston Chronicle:

U.S. officials recently met secretly with Iraqi insurgent commanders at a summer villa north of Baghdad to try to negotiate an end to the bloodshed, a British newspaper reported today.

Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, asked about the report, suggested that meetings between Iraqi officials and insurgents "go on all the time" and said "we facilitate those from time to time."

The insurgent commanders "apparently came face to face" with four American officials during meetings on June 3 and June 13 at a summer villa near Balad, about 25 miles north of Baghdad, the Iraqi capital, The Sunday Times newspaper in London said.

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This is old news. In fact, I even posted something about it last February. However, the press seemed to be all over it on Sunday, which was not the case before--I imagine they're feeling a bit more bold given Bush's extraordinarily low approval rating; heck, the elites who own the press may even be getting sick of the war themselves, and allowing their pet journalists a limited amount of freedom.

At any rate, Rummy's quite right when he says that this goes on "all the time;" he simply neglects to point out that these negotiations represent a dramatic shift in past policy, and belie current right-wing rhetoric about liberals, terrorism, and "therapy" for the terrorists. The truth is that these talks are a strong sign that the Pentagon has no idea what to do with Iraq: in January British veteran Middle East correspondent Robert Fisk pronounced the US occupation all but over, asserting that the Pentagon would now be looking for a way out of the quagmire without losing face, and predicted that they would be forced to negotiate a deal with the insurgents that would leave them in power. So far, Fisk's looking like an oracle.

Of course, these negotiations are off to a typically arrogant start:

The U.S. officials tried to gather information about the structure, leadership and operations of the insurgent groups, which irritated some members, who had been told the talks would consider their main demand, a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq, the newspaper said.

Expect the Pentagon's attitude to change as the bodies continue to pile up. This war really is over. Our leaders just haven't figured it out yet.

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