Via the Financial Times: Iraq’s insurgents ’seek exit strategy’

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.

“Firstly, they want to ensure their own security,” says Sharif Ali, who last week hosted a pan-Sunni conference attended by tribal sheikhs and other local leaders speaking on behalf of the insurgents.

Insurgent leaders fear coming out into the open to talk for fear of being targeted by US military or Iraqi security forces’ raids, he said.

While it may be distasteful, offering some kind of amensty may be the wise route here.

Unfortunately, however, this isn’t Zarqawi’s group. However, if the dead-enders stop fighting, it would remove a great deal of what little legitimacy the anti-government forces can claim.

If large numbers of Iraqi insurgents quit fighting, the remainder would be largely foreign terrorists. Such a circumstnaces would underscore that the violence isn’t about occupation as it is about halting the development of a stable, democratic Iraq.