BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Insurgents who have killed U.S. troops in Iraq would not be pardoned under the Iraqi government's amnesty plan, American newspapers quoted Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki as saying on Wednesday.
On Sunday, Maliki, a Shiite who has pledged to ease violence gripping Iraq, unveiled a "national reconciliation" that included an amnesty for insurgents "who did not take part in criminal and terrorist acts and war crimes."
"The amnesty doesn't include those who have killed Iraqis or even coalition forces because those soldiers came to Iraq under international agreements to help Iraq," Maliki said in an interview with a group of newspapers that included The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post.
Omar from Iraq The Model responds:
I feel better about Maliki's plan now; mostly because with this point clarified, the government will avoid falling in the serious contradiction we warned from.
But this raises an interesting question; if amnesty is not going to be offered to killers of MNF soldiers, Iraqi soldiers or Iraqi civilians then to whom?
With trigger-pullers excluded, maybe amnesty will be given to the facilitators and sympathizers; those who provided safe houses, transportation and facilities to the insurgents. If this is the case and if those facilitators accept the offer I think it will significantly reduce the ability of insurgents to carryout their operations and the effect will be more profound on foreign terrorists who depend largely on local facilitators.
Personally, I would have been just fine with amnesty for the insurgents up to and including those who have attacked and killed coalition/Iraqi forces. Forgiveness is now peace is won, and those politicians here in America who had a knee-jerk reaction to the idea of insurgents getting amnesty just aren't thinking things through.
Yet Omar makes a good point as well. If the "facilitators" can be brought into the fold the insurgents may well find their jobs a whole lot more difficult. Although, how you tell a facilitator from an insurgent - who has killed from who hasn't killed - is beyond me.