Iraq's militant groups positively respond to Talabani's call for talks

Some insurgent groups responded positively on Tuesday to Iraqi President Jalal Talabani's call to participate in the political process.

"The Mujahedin are not against any project that could save the country from its ordeal," said a statement signed by the Joint Coordination Office of the Jihadi Squads.

The statement, which was posted on an Islamic website, conditioned that the participation should be "within our religious constants, and that the enemies should be serious in such project. "

The joint office consisted of four Islamic squads, the Islamic Army in Iraq, the Mujahedin Army, the 1920th Revolution Brigades and the Islamic Front of the Iraqi Resistance, according to the statement. Talabani said on Sunday that he was willing to talk to Iraqi insurgents, but stressed that they have to lay down weapons and participate in the country's political process first.

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Those four insurgent groups represent the vast majority of the domestic Baathist insurgency, but the Islamic Extremist element has become so much more powerful and active that these groups laying down their arms would mean nothing when it comes to the violence in Iraq.

But, overall those four groups aren't a fifth as active as the main four Islamic Extremist groups Ansar al-Sunna, Ansar al-Islam, The Victorious Army, and al-Qaeda in Iraq. The SITE Institute is a good resource for looking at which terror groups web site claims which attack.

If these Baath resistance groups were to stand down it may encourage the Sunni Arab population to join the political process and abandon support of the remaining Extremist groups.

Certainly in the short-term the violence would continue unabated. In the longer term, the Sunni could be expected to turn against these extremist groups, whose members tend to wage mass murder against the Iraqi population at large. Between this, and perhaps the assistance of the Baath resistance groups, the anti-government resistance could be all but finished.