Opinion: Dialogue with an Armed Man

News reports indicate that negotiations are underway with some armed groups. Some say they are negotiating with the Americans and others say that they are negotiating with the Iraqi side. Whomever they negotiate with, the most important thing to keep in mind is that Iraqis have lost a lot of blood because of those (insurgent) groups. If those groups targeted Americans, it is the Americans' decision whether to forgive them. But if they targeted the innocent Iraqi people, it is the task of the Iraqi authorities to put them on trial as per the appropriate laws and legislations. It is not logical to accept the apologies of the insurgents, who have recently discovered that they made a mistake by killing (innocent) people and using their weapons rather than dialogue to (fight) the foreign presence. And now it is time for them to participate in politics. No one has the authority to take away the rights of the innocent people who were killed at the hands of those groups. And they proudly published declarations that they had killed people on the internet and were openly killing and kidnapping individuals. We support any kind of dialogue and we stand against any kind of armament out of the government's control. But we fully support holding politicians or gunmen legally accountable in order to protect the Iraqis and their blood.