Show of Hands --How Many Saw This In the MSM News? How Many Knew About IT? LINK

[Blackhatjack]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=166526&mesg_id=166526

It is amazing that so few people are even aware of an event that could lead to direct talks and ceasation of hostilities by Sunni insurgents in Iraq.

What has to happen for the MSM to cover this?

DID You Know About It?

[ixion]

1. I think I heard it mentioned in passing, between the on-going reports of Anna Nicoles death

which was the lead story on every freakin' station. :crazy:

[radfringe]

10. yeah it sort of

slipped into her clevage and the MSM was distracted

[bigtree]

2. I thought the 'offer' sounded more like a provocation than a serious overture to peace

The terms would be fine by me, but it's not clear to me, sitting here in the U.S., just how much sympathetic regard I should give the group and individuals who 'offered' the proposal. I'm not inclined to highlight it.

[Blackhatjack]

4. Historically, this is how armed conflicts end through diplomacy...

When neither side is able to break the will of their adversary, the beginning of ending hostilities always starts with outrageous positions for beginning negotiations of peace.

The importance is not how realistic the terms are -- It is the 'offer to open negotiations to end the fighting' which to my knowledge has never happened since we began the Iraq War.

AS previously mentioned, this is exactly how France eventually withdrew from the quagmire they were in Algeria. It is how the Iraq/Iran War eventually wound down. ANd it is how we negotiated our way out of Vietnam.

Without a reaching out of the warring opponents, there is no negotiation. So the offer is big news not for the terms, but for what it means -that the Sunni insurgents are looking to negotiate an end of the fighting.

[Blackhatjack]

3. Imagine if the Viet Cong Made Such An Overture, Would It Have Gotten Coverage?

I mean honestly it appears there is a concerted effort to limit any information that public receives from the MSM that would interfere with keeping this war going.

How can this not be a page one story with so many on Capitol Hill focused on the Iraq War?

Big Question: Will Condi Rice say she never say it?

[Blackhatjack]

5. Well I guess even here at DU people do not understand the import of this....

And Condi will give the same answer later --she never saw, heard about it, etc.

[cmd]

8. or it will have been her idea to begin with

I don't trust her.

[thecrow]

6. I saw it, but seriously doubted anything would come of it.

:waving hand wildly:

[Blackhatjack]

7. Did you come to that conclusion because of Bush? or some other reason? n/t

[thecrow]

15. Beacause of * yes. Because he won't negotiate with anyone

[jarnocan]

9. thanks the MSM needs a reminder - PRIORITIES! nt

[Divernan]

11. Info from the OP's link.

Robert Fisk: Iraqi insurgents offer peace in return for US concessions
For the first time, Sunni insurgents disclose their conditions for ceasefire in Iraq
Published: 09 February 2007
For the first time, one of Iraq's principal insurgent groups has set out the terms of a ceasefire that would allow American and British forces to leave the country they invaded almost four years ago.

The present terms would be impossible for any US administration to meet - but the words of Abu Salih Al-Jeelani, one of the military leaders of the Sunni Iraqi Islamic Resistance Movement show that the groups which have taken more than 3,000 American lives are actively discussing the opening of contacts with the occupation army.

Al-Jeelani's group, which also calls itself the "20th Revolution Brigades'', is the military wing of the original insurgent organisation that began its fierce attacks on US forces shortly after the invasion of 2003. The statement is, therefore, of potentially great importance, although it clearly represents only the views of Sunni Muslim fighters.

Shia militias are nowhere mentioned. The demands include the cancellation of the entire Iraqi constitution - almost certainly because the document, in effect, awards oil-bearing areas of Iraq to Shia and Kurds, but not to the minority Sunni community. Yet the Sunnis remain Washington's principal enemies in the Iraqi war.

[ArmchairMeme]

12. Time to talk

First I've seen it but, do find most of my news on the web rather than M$M. I haven't been watching the Blond dead girl story either.

I would be first the go with diplomacy but, again there's the but, it doesn't seem as though there is any capable of or interested in diplomacy within the current administration. They have a listening deficit!

Perhaps France would be willing to be our negotiator since they have the experience and know how as they accomplished it before.

[stormymonday]

13. A truce with the Sunnis just in time for an attack on Iran

[Straight Shooter]

14. I saw it, I read it, and I said, "Hmmmm ...."

Really didn't know what to make of it, but I knew what Little Boots would make of it. Absolutely nothing.

"When neither side is able to break the will of their adversary, the beginning of ending hostilities always starts with outrageous positions for beginning negotiations of peace."

That's an interesting point, because my overall impression was, in fact, that their terms were outrageous. ("Ain't gonna happen.")

But even in everyday life, many of us ask for far more than we think we can get (reach exceeding grasp), in hopes of negotiating downward to terms which are mutually acceptable/tolerable to all parties. In civil disputes, it's called mediation or arbitration. We could use some mediation and arbitration in Iraq.