Liberal Talk Radio

The offer of amnesty — not in the immigration debate; let’s switch gears here — to insurgents seems like something the Iraqi government has to do:

Several Sunni-led insurgent groups have approached the Iraqi government to try to start serious negotiations, following the Iraqi prime minister’s presentation on Sunday of a plan for national reconciliation, a senior legislator from the prime minister’s party said today.

The groups have made no demands yet, but they want to express their views to top government officials, according to the legislator, Hassan al-Suneid. “There are signals” from “some armed groups to sit at the negotiating table,” said Mr. Suneid, who, like Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, belongs to the Islamic Dawa Party, a conservative Shiite party.

The Sunni-led insurgent groups are made up of Iraqi nationalist fighters, and have floated their proposal through Sunni Arab intermediaries, Mr. Suneid said today in a telephone interview. They “are not implicated in the bloodletting of Iraqis,” he added.

Mr. Suneid declined to say how many groups wanted to open talks or which groups they are, though there are indications that seven insurgent factions are involved.

This is not the first time the groups have contacted the Shiite-led Iraqi government, he said. Earlier this year, these same groups began discussions with President Jalal Talabani. An aide to the president told reporters in April that the president had spoken to seven guerrilla groups and that an agreement “was possible.”

Mr. Suneid said the groups appeared to be interpreting Mr. Maliki’s new reconciliation plan as an opening for them to reach out to Mr. Maliki and accelerate or strengthen the earlier talks.

“The Sunni mediators told me there’s a kind of positive approach by these armed groups in response to this initiative,” Mr. Suneid said. “I think the initiative will open up a new atmosphere for these dialogues and upgrade them.”

There’s no choice here because if the Iraqi government continues to hold insurgent groups responsible, then insurgents have no real incentive to quit. If you’re going to be killed or jailed or worse, then why not fight to the death?

All of which makes hollow grandstanding by certain U.S. Senators particularly galling. Of course no one wants the Iraqi government to give amnesty to “terrorists with the blood of U.S. soldiers on their hands,” but we also don’t want troops stationed there forever either. It’s pretty clear that Senator Menendez, who co-sponsored the bill, is being disingenuous, as others have noted. He should be publicly rebuked. Hard.