SOME INSURGENTS OFFER CEASE FIRE FOR TIMETABLE

From the AP via Yahoo courtesy of AlterNet:

Eleven Sunni insurgent groups have offered to halt attacks on the U.S.-led military if the Iraqi government and President Bush set a two-year timetable for withdrawing all foreign troops from the country, insurgent and government officials told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

The demand is part of a broad offer from the groups, who operate north of Baghdad in the heavily Sunni Arab provinces of Salahuddin and Diyala. Although much of the fighting has been to the west, those provinces have become increasingly violent and the attacks there have regularly crippled oil and commerce routes.

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Just to be clear, this is only a portion of the insurgency, not the whole shebang. Nonetheless, this is a significant offer, and it strongly bolsters the point of view that much of the insurgency is about resentment of the US occupation, rather than about a bunch of Ba'athists with a grudge. Coupled with Iraqi government members' similar pleas, it becomes clear as day that the people of Iraq want us out, and that they blame America for all the turmoil over there. Bush could greatly lessen the chaos he instigated by instituting a timetable for withdrawal. He doesn't even have to leave yet, just draw up a document with goals and dates. Unfortunately, he's been pretty open about the fact that we're not leaving until their government can provide stability, which, I might add, is highly unlikely while we still have troops there. Frankly, I think Bush is well aware of the destabilizing influence of the US presence, and is counting on it to give him rhetorical cover for continuing the occupation indefinitely. In other words, the stability-before-withdrawal concept is a bullshit paradigm because Bush has always intended to stay in Iraq forever.

What really kills me is that I'm quite certain that future Presidents, Democrat and Republican alike, are going to continue Bush's policy of permanent occupation. Iraq is now a vassal state, and the US is its imperial overlord.

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