"What effect must it have on a nation if it learns no foreign languages? Probably much the same as that which a total withdrawal from society has upon an individual." --G.C. Lichtenberg
The operational commander of US troops in Iraq on Thursday said officers are seeking local ceasefire deals with insurgents, after the deadliest month for American forces in two-and-a-half years.
Lieutenant General Raymond Odierno, the number two US officer in Iraq, told reporters that about four-fifths of the militants currently fighting American forces were thought to be ready to join Iraq's political process.
Now who's getting close to terrorists?
This initiative reeks of desperation.
We're not going to offer the insurgents anything close to what they want in the longer term. They know it, and we know it, and in no case does any potential party to these agreements have the first reason to trust the other. Whatever 'agreements' we come to with the insurgents are going to be entirely of the moment, and will ultimately leave the situation on the ground unchanged.
After all the talk about how U.S. military might could "win" in Iraq, the very idea that the strategy going forward should be to engage with the people who have been shooting and (mostly) blowing us up is an insult. They're stabbing in the dark, and it is pathetically obvious.
