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WOLF BLITZER: Secret
talks with Iraq's insurgents -- there are new details
emerging on contacts with the enemy from America's
outgoing ambassador. Zalmay Khalilzad says the aim is
to try to persuade those insurgents not to side with
al Qaeda.
But is it too little too late?
Joining us now in Baghdad, our correspondent Michael
Ware -- Michael, did the U.S. miss any opportunities
in trying to deal with these Sunni insurgents?
MICHAEL WARE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Oh, absolutely.
Almost from day one. And that's been repeatedly
admitted, certainly privately, by U.S. military
intelligence officials, by officials from U.S.
intelligence agencies and by certain diplomats.
I mean, I personally sat with Baathist, Sunni,
nationalist insurgents -- Iraq's version of former
West Pointers, Iraq's version of ex-members of the
CIA. From the very beginning, from the fall of
Saddam, they had no love lost for that dictator.
But they loved their country. They saw themselves
defending it.
What they couldn't understand is why America was
attacking it, why America was occupying it. From the
very beginning they said we have more in common than
we have in difference. They're prepared to host U.S.
bases. They're prepared to deny sanctuary to al
Qaeda. They're prepared to oppose Iran.
Their big problem has been this government, that they
see that the U.S. has brought to power, a group of
exiles who left the country during Saddam and took
sanctuary amongst neighboring Iran, principally.
So that's where the difference lies. It all comes
back to the old Iran-Iraq, Iran-U.S. differences and
rivalries -- Wolf.
BLITZER: You know, there are moderate Sunnis, there
are moderate Shia, certainly plenty of moderate
Kurds.
But the question is this, Michael, among the more
militant Sunnis, the Sunni insurgents, the more
militant Shiites, the militias, can their divisions
ever be brought together? Can they ever make peace
given the hatred between the militants on both sides?
WARE: Well, this is the question -- has the civil war
gone so far already that the scarring on the national
psyche is so deep that no one can ever recover?
Certainly there are extremists on both sides for whom
there is now and never shall be room for negotiation.
What's at stake is the middle ground, middle Iraq.
And I have to tell you, be they former Baathists who
believe that they fought for their country; be they
Shia militia who they believe have opposed a foreign
occupier, not in the name of Islam, not in the name
of Tehran, but in the name of their country; among
these people, I believe there is still one last
chance to bring them in under a nationalist umbrella.
And it's up to America now whether it can harness
this kind of Iraqi pride.
BLITZER: Michael Ware reporting for us from Baghdad.
Michael, thanks, as usual.
WARE: Thank you, Wolf.