No Amnesty, New Evidence, & A Plan Comes Together

Remember that amnesty proposal Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki offered to the "insurgents" that had elected Democrats in a high dudgeon of feigned pants-crapping? Well, they can go shovel out their trousers now, because the "insurgents" turned it down (via CQ):

Iraq's main insurgent groups intend to reject a peace plan that Nouri al-Maliki, the prime minister, will present today in an attempt to halt the country’s spiral of violence.

Maliki is expected to go before parliament with a 28- point plan for national reconciliation aimed at defusing the Sunni insurgency and sectarian conflict in which thousands of people have died. ...

Representatives of 11 Iraqi insurgent groups told The Sunday Times yesterday that they would reject the peace offer because they did not recognise the legitimacy of the government.

A senior commander authorised to speak on behalf of other groups warned that they would continue to fight. “As long as there is an occupation and an illegitimate government, the resistance and insurgency will continue,” he said.

That, my good friends, is the "insurgency" - the tattered remnants of it - signing its own death warrant. Had they called Maliki's bluff, he'd have been in a dicier situation, having to negotiate and make peace with people he and his government (and the Coalition) would have had no real reason to trust. It would have been a prime means for the "insurgents" to penetrate Iraq's elected government and subvert it from within. And it would have fueled the arguments of the cut & run crowd that the "insurgency" is over, the mission is completed, and we can start bringing all the troops home as fast as the transports can carry them.

Instead, the "insurgents" stood on their pride in the finest Middle East tradition. And not for nothing is it written, "Pride goes before destruction...."

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Haditha as My-Lai? Guess again, Riddler:

New evidence continues to emerge that U.S. Marines did not wantonly kill Iraqi civilians in Haditha last November - and the soldiers' accounts of what happened are backed up by videotape shot by an ultralight vehicle, NewsMax has learned....

Intelligence sources tell NewsMax the facts of the Haditha incident paint an entirely different picture from the one Murtha and others are propagating.

Military sources familiar with the incident have told NewsMax:

Within minutes of the early morning IED explosion, a firefight erupted between insurgents and Marines. Civilians were caught in the middle of a firefight. Also, although civilians did die, their deaths were the result of door-to-door combat as the Marines sought to clear houses and stop the insurgent gunfire.

Ample evidence proves a firefight took place. For example, every second of the ensuing firefight was monitored by numerous people at company, battalion and regimental HQs via radio communications.

Video evidence supports the Marines' claims. Within a very few minutes, battalion, regimental and division headquarters were able to watch the action thanks to an overhead ultralight aircraft that remained aloft all day. Photos of some of the actions were downloaded and in the hands of Marines and the NCIS.

Some of the insurgents involved in planning the attack and firing at Marines during a daylong engagement have been apprehended and are in custody.

Read the voluminous details. Bottom line is Haditha was Taliban City, and when the Marines went in to retake it the al Qaedoids hid behind the captive civilian populace. Pretty much what one would expect of the honorless petaQ we're fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere. And what anybody who isn't an Ameriphobic mercenary with a press pass would naturally assume.

The Haditha Eight will be exonerated, assuming the Marine Corps isn't bullied by the Ameriphobes into making human sacrifices of them. But by that time the Extreme Media will have moved on to the next slander campaign against the men and women fighting to keep their pampered, ungrateful asses out of harm's way. Because, after all, the war against the war must continue.

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It is well known that Saddam Hussein's grand strategy for defeating the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq was to go limp, have the Fedeyeen and Republican Guard shed their uniforms, and wage the now-infamous "insurgency" against Coalition efforts to rebuild the country he bled and destroyed for a generation. "The Americans will pay for this in blood and shame. Today is theirs....but every day that follows will be mine, until they are gone."

Things didn't turn out quite the way Mr. Cheeto had hoped. But as his trial nears its inevitable and terminal end, he decided to play his trump(ed) card anyway:

Saddam Hussein believes the United States will have to seek his help to quell the bloody insurgency in Iraq and open the way for U.S. forces to withdraw, his chief lawyer said Sunday.

Khalil al-Dulaimi argued in an interview with The Associated Press that the former leader is the key to returning stability to Iraq.

"He's their last resort. They're going to knock at his door eventually," the lawyer said. Saddam is "the only person who can stop the resistance against the U.S. troops."

Uh-huh. For a "price," no doubt. Gee, I wonder what that could be? A beard trimmer? The return of his cherished wood-chipper? A lifetime supply of Fritos?

Expect to see John Kerry introducing a resolution in the Senate (and John Murtha doing the same in the House) demanding that the Bush Administration take Saddam up on his offer. Heck, this could put the ol' duffer in contention for this year's Nobel Peace prize.

Saddam, that is. Though I've no doubt that Lurch and Haw-Haw will rate honorable mentions.