National Reconciliation Plan

Oops! Newsweek has a draft copy of the National Reconciliation Plan and it appears that that pesky independent government in Iraq has come up with a plan that may just provoke a Bush/Cheney hissy-fit. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is trying to put together something that can work in the fiasco that he has inherited and, like all compromises, it will not be what all parties want but it just may be what all parties can live with... literally. Newsweek says that he'll announce it Sunday and that it includes:

A timetable for withdrawal of occupation troops from Iraq. Amnesty for all insurgents who attacked U.S. and Iraqi military targets. Release of all security detainees from U.S. and Iraqi prisons. Compensation for victims of coalition military operations.

Those sound like the demands of some of the insurgents themselves, and in fact they are. But they're also key clauses of a national reconciliation plan drafted by new Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who will unveil it Sunday. The provisions will spark sharp debate in Iraq—but the fiercest opposition is likely to come from Washington, which has opposed any talk of timetables, or of amnesty for insurgents who have attacked American soldiers.

I wish him luck and I hope that George doesn't screw up Maliki's attempt to deal with George's screw-up.