From the December 12 issue of Time:

U.S. officials in Baghdad confirm to TIME that they have stepped up their efforts to negotiate with nationalist insurgents and the Sunnis they represent. "We want to deal with their legitimate concerns," U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad."

"Insurgency and terror are two different things," says Khalilzad.

"This insurgency has got roots, it's got money, and it's got motivation," says a U.S. intelligence official, in an assessment echoed by military officers and insurgent leaders alike. "And the life span of this insurgency could be years."

Will we ever see Iraqi security forces capable of crushing this insurgency? Probably not. No," says a high-ranking military-intelligence officer in Iraq.

Apparently the people quoted in this article did not get the memo from Donald Rumsfeld. Not only are they "insurgents" rather than "terrorists," they have "legitimate concerns." I would say that negotiating with the insurgents is a good idea. If Iraq continues down the road to becoming an Iranian satellite, however, my concern is that we could eventually end up supporting the insurgents. Stranger things have happened--after all, we armed Saddam Hussein.