The other day we made mention of the fact that al-Maliki, despite the Iraq parliamentary being on the highly criticized "vacation", was working behind the scenes on political progress by courting the Sunni's.
Understanding the urgency for reconciliation and political progress to follow the progress we are seeing Militarily in Iraq, al-Maliki in an amazing turnaround is courting the Sunni's of Iraq.
Now, if, I repeat IF, the article Captain Ed has found, proves to be true and I have a every search engine possible looking for a verifying source to back up the Italian news services report, but if true, the al-Maliki has been a busy little camper behind the scenes.
Baghdad, 22 August (AKI) - The leader of Iraq's banned Baath party, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, has decided to join efforts by the Iraqi authorities to fight al-Qaeda, one of the party's former top officials, Abu Wisam al-Jashaami, told pan-Arab daily Al Hayat.
"AlDouri has decided to sever ties with al-Qaeda and sign up to the programme of the national resistance, which includes routing Islamist terrorists and opening up dialogue with the Baghdad government and foreign forces," al-Jashaami said.
Al-Douri has decided to deal directly with US forces in Iraq, according to al-Jashaami. He figures in the 55-card deck of "most wanted" officials from the former Iraqi regime issued by the US government.
In return, for cooperating in the fight against al-Qaeda, al-Douri has asked for guarantees over his men's safety and for an end to Iraqi army attacks on his militias.
Recent weeks have seen a first step in this direction, when Baathist fighters cooperated with Iraqi government forces in hunting down al-Qaeda operatives in the volatile Diyala province and in several districts of the capital, Baghadad.
If true, we are talking about one hell of a lot of compromise here but to succeed on the political front, Maliki might have just found a way to get everyone working toward one common goal and against al-Qaeda.
Ed's analysis:
The turning of al-Douri, if true, would indicate that Maliki may have succeeded in marginalizing Sadr and bringing together the rest of the disparate elements of Iraq at least into a relationship where unity could occur. That would not have happened except for the performance of Petraeus and his work in Anbar and Diyala. The surge came as Sunnis had tired of AQI's brutal imposition of Taliban-like rule, and the renewed American effort has given the tribes a reason to unite and to work with the Baghdad government.
Maliki may have taken a huge step towards ending the insurgency while dispensing with Sadr. If so, Congress may hear in September that significant progress has been made both politically and militarily -- and that we can see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Read the whole thing... its right on target.
While you do that, I am going to continue searching for news about this.
Quick question to think about here though, how is it this news is being brought to us through an Italian news service and not our MSM?
Everyone just might have a huge September surprise coming their way.
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