The parliamentary election in Iraq went better than anybody expected. There was less violence and a higher turnout than in either of the two previous votes. Some credit goes to the Sunnis.
Sunnis ready to cooperate with U.S.
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
December 18, 2005AMMAN, Jordan -- Key Sunni Muslim leaders in Iraq's violent Anbar province have concluded that their interests lie in cooperating with the United States, and they are seeking to extend a temporary truce honored by most insurgent groups for last week's elections.
But at the same time, they are demanding specific steps by the U.S. military, including a reduction in military raids and an increase in development projects for their vast desert province that stretches from the edge of Baghdad to the Syrian and Jordanian borders.
You know the negotiations are getting serious when talk turns towards public works projects. But joking aside, the fact is the Sunnis extended protection to the voters in what used to be terrorist strongholds.
Adnan al-Dulaimi, leader of a prominent Sunni bloc, confirmed yesterday that insurgent groups had prevented violence from interfering with Thursday's election for a 275-seat parliament.
His comments yesterday on a cease-fire deal -- first reported in The Washington Times on the day Iraqis voted -- provided the first public explanation for the sharp drop in violence last week. "The resistance announced it would protect polling stations and would not allow a single group to attack them, and it respected its promise.
"We thank them in the name of the Iraqi Accordance Front," Mr. al-Dulaimi told reporters in Baghdad, referring to the electoral bloc he leads.
It appears Zarqawi's nightmare is on the verge of becoming his reality. In his famous letter he said,
The army and police have begun to deploy in those areas and are growing stronger day by day. They have put chiefs [drawn] from among Sunni agents and the people of the land in charge. In other words, this army and police may be linked to the inhabitants of this area by kinship, blood, and honor. In truth, this area is the base from which we set out and to which we return. When the Americans disappear from these areas – and they have begun to do so – and these agents, who are linked by destiny to the people of the land, take their place, what will our situation be?
If we fight them {and we must fight them}, we will confront one of two things. Either:
1 – We fight them, and this is difficult because of the gap that will emerge between us and the people of the land. How can we fight their cousins and their sons and under what pretext after the Americans, who hold the reins of power from their rear bases, pull back? The real sons of this land will decide the matter through experience. Democracy is coming, and there will be no excuse thereafter.
2 – We pack our bags and search for another land, as is the sad, recurrent story in the arenas of jihad, because our enemy is growing stronger and his intelligence data are increasing day by day. (My emphasis)
The Sunnis seem to be seeing the light. They're beginning to realize they can vote us out, but Zarqawi remains to be defeated, wherever it is he goes when the day comes that the Iraqis will no longer have him. That day may be upon us.
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