Sunni Surrender?

According to the Financial Times, Iraq's terrorists may soon say "uncle":

Many of Iraq's predominantly Sunni Arab insurgents would lay down their arms and join the political process in exchange for guarantees of their safety and that of their co-religionists, according to a prominent Sunni politician.

Sharif Ali Bin al-Hussein, who heads Iraq's main monarchist movement and is in contact with guerrilla leaders, said many insurgents including former officials of the ruling Ba'ath party, army officers, and Islamists have been searching for a way to end their campaign against US troops and Iraqi government forces since the January 30 election. . .

Sharif Ali said the success of Iraq's elections dealt the insurgents a demoralising blow, prompting them to consider the need to enter the political process.

I expect lefties to deny, deny, deny--or ignore. After all, only two months ago, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright urged quitting:

Because we lack sufficient power, each time the insurgency is attacked, it appears to gain strength. Intelligence experts worry that the conflict is spawning a new generation of international terrorists.

Similarly, multi-billionaire limousine liberal George Soros panicked last fall:

All my experience…has taught me that democracy cannot be imposed by military means. And Iraq would be the last place I would choose for an experiment in introducing democracy.

Talk is cheap--especially for Democrats who refuse to back words with force. Siding with freedom is simple--and yet the Dems backed every two-bit Marxist from Ortega to Allende to Mao to Ho. Lefties have a perfect record--wrong every time.

(via LGF)

More:

Austin Bay is cautiously optimistic:

The holdouts have always had two hole cards. The first is agreeing to quit fighting. This meant submitting to the democratic judicial process, but turning in your arms and asking for amnesty would lay the groundwork for a “deal with the prosecutor.”

The second card is turning in Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and the Al Qaeda internationalists..Fact is, turning in Zarqawi would be the Baghdad equivalent of Monopoly’s “Get Out of Jail Free Card” for the lower-level holdouts who engineer it.

The Saddamites who turn in Zarqawi would give the Iraqi government a tactical military victory –the terrorist kingpin is off the streets– and a major political victory. Sunni Muslims turning in the Islamist terrorist would be another strategic coup for the United States.

Still More:

Could Al Qaeda itself be on the rocks? Tigerhawk points to this Amir Taheri column in the Morocco Times:

Al Qaeda — which operated as an efficient organ of command and control — has been smashed to pieces. Just two of its former top 20 leaders, Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri, are believed to be still alive and free — and those two are in hiding, seemingly without regular organizational contact with Islamist cells anywhere in the world. . .

The movement is also finding it increasingly difficult to attract new recruits, especially within the Muslim world. Even in Western Europe (where Muslim communities still represent fertile recruiting ground), the number of "volunteers" peaked in the fall of 2003 and has been falling since. . .

For the first time in two decades, the movement is also beginning to face fund-raising difficulties. The generous donations that indirectly came from various regional countries have stopped, while scores of bank accounts operated by the militants have been frozen. . .

The biggest setback for the Islamists, however, is a shift of mood in the Islamic heartland. The elections in West Bank and Gaza, Afghanistan and Iraq; Lebanon's freedom movement; the beginnings of change in Egypt, Yemen and Saudi Arabia — all have helped generate new interest in democratic reform.

(via Seekerblog)