So the news is out, again, that the elected Iraqi government is offering insurgents amnesty for killing American and Iraqi troops. The deal offered is supposedly this, from The Times in London:

The 28-point package for national reconciliation will offer Iraqi resistance groups inclusion in the political process and an amnesty for their prisoners if they renounce violence and lay down their arms, The Times can reveal. The Government will promise a finite, UN-approved timeline for the withdrawal of all foreign troops from Iraq; a halt to US operations against insurgent strongholds; an end to human rights violations, including those by coalition troops; and compensation for victims of attacks by terrorists or Iraqi and coalition forces. It will pledge to take action against Shia militias and death squads. It will also offer to review the process of “de-Baathification” and financial compensation for the thousands of Sunnis who were purged from senior jobs in the Armed Forces and Civil Service after the fall of Saddam Hussein.

…

The Government intends to form a committee to distinguish between groups that can be considered legitimate resistance and those that are beyond the pale. “For those that defended their country against foreign troops, we need to open a new page . . . They did not mean to destabilise Iraq. They were defending Iraqi soil,” said Adnan Ali, a senior member of the Dawa party of Nouri alMaliki, the Prime Minister.

Reading directly from the draft package, Mahmoud al-Mashaadani, the Parliament’s Sunni Speaker, told The Times: “There will be a general amnesty to release all the prisoners who were not involved in the shedding of innocent Iraqis’ blood.”

People are acting like this is some sort of strange or unacceptable development, like there is no way we can allow people who killed our soldiers to be pardoned and enter normal civilian life without penalty.  This feeling is historically ignorant and illogical, though I can understand the emotions behind it.

Of course we want justice to be brought to vicious killers of our fellow citizens but this isn't a civil law matter.  This is war we are fighting here.  We kill them, they kill us… that's how it goes.  To end it, really end it short of a complete and total victory which in this circumstance is impossible, we must give the legitimate patriotic insurgents who want to stop fighting amnesty and a place in the political process to replace their use of guns and bombs with words and meetings.  We need to make peace with the legitimate defeated insurgents.   Its a hard thing to do but it is the normal and hoped for end to any insurgency.

If this deal is finalized and accepted by the Sunni insurgent groups in Iraq it will mean Victory for the U.S. in this war.

Some terrorists may remain for some time but they will never have enough support to threaten the government if the native insurgency opposes them.  This isn't getting much reporting here in the U.S. so I suspect this will be a shock for most citizens if it happens.  The American public has been prepared for defeat by Democrats and the Press, not for Victory.  It will be interesting to see how Peace and Victory will be reported if it does come.