While the SurrenderMedia has devolved into reporting nothing but US body-counts in a macabre attempt to avoid all chance of reporting on successes prevelant across Iraq, a small minority attempt to salvage the journalistic profession and report all the important news from Iraq. News such as when Sunni and Shiis clerics join forces to fight al Qaeda:

Sunni and Shiite religious scholars came together in Baghdad on Monday to form a new inter-sect Muslim council and called for an end to the both the US occupation and violent extremism.
Under the slogan “the unity of the scholars symbolises the unity of the Iraqi people,” some 40 clerics, both Sunni and Shiite, formed the Union of Muslim Scholars, the first body of its kind.

While none of Iraq’s truly influential religious leaders were present, the major trends in Muslim thought were represented and the delegates pledged to heal the rifts tearing the society apart.

“We call on the people, especially the sons of the tribes, to reject the gangs and violent mobs and their failed satanic plans and present a united front against the extremists trying to destroy Iraq,” a closing statement said.

No one is expecting universal gratitude to the US for our efforts to help Iraq out of the dark ages of Saddam Hussein and help them avoid the dark ages of a-Qaeda. We will have our supporters and those who will never admit what we did for Iraq. But as long as it remains a beacon of democracy and aligned against extremism, then it will have been worth the cost in blood and treasure. Saddam was more than likely to find some way to help al Qaeda attack America. Anyone who would guarantee otherwise is truly foolish. Progress is costly – but sometimes you need to pay that price to get where you need to be.

In other news it seems al-Qaeda in Iraq has declared surrender or ceasefire in its battles against local Sunnis who have aligned against them:

“[Al-Baghdadi] has sent a missive to the commanders and soldiers of Al-Jaysh Al-Islami, in which he wrote:… ‘We treat the honorable [fighters] with the honor [they deserve], and regard our brothers [with respect], as warranted by their honorable history in jihad… especially since many of us once fought under the [banner of] Al-Jaysh [Al-Islami]… We will maintain these ties of friendship, whatever happens…’

“[Al-Baghdadi] emphasized that the ISI soldiers have sworn a pledge of allegiance to death, but that the soldiers of the [other] jihad groups are citizens [of the Islamic State of Iraq]. Therefore, [he said], we have a responsibility to protect their lives and this takes priority over [protecting the lives] of the ISI soldiers, since the blood of the jihad fighters must not be spilled except in the war against the Crusaders and their helpers…”

al-Baghdadi has called for an Islamic Court to address the infighting. Of course, with members of this court coming from al-Baghdadi’s group, which is responsible for all the mindless killing of Muslims with their indiscriminate bombings, it is doubtful the result will be punishment for al-Qaeda leaders who authorized the killing of Muslims in the first place. Which caused the rift to surface between Iraq insurgents and al-Qaeda’s foreign fighters. It seems that this new plan (along with a similar call for a panel of leftwing human rights groups to deal with civilian deaths in Afghanistan) is a desperate attempt to get some outside help. It won’t be coming. After 3-4 years of killing innocents in bombings in markets, mosques and schools it is a bit late to claim innocence and call for justice.