Ambassador Khalilzad, our man in Iraq, can't seem to figure out who the bad guys are. First he spent years attacking the Sunni-led insurgency, until it became clear that the Shiite-based paramilitary forces and death squads were responsible for most of the killing. Then he switched sides: it was, he said, the Shiite militias who were the chief bad guys. Now he's switched again, the Post reports:

In an interview at his residence shortly before the bombing [attack on an Iraqi deputy prime minister], Khalilzad said that he now sees al-Qaeda in Iraq as "the big threat" to stability in Iraq. In previous interviews, Khalilzad had pinpointed Shiite militias, such as cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army, as Iraq's main troublemakers.

That's despite overwhelming evidence that if the Shiite radicals who dominate Iraq's government were curbed, along with their militias, the Sunni resistance would lay down its arms and join the political process, as long as it is tied to a U.S. withdrawal. The latest explicit statement to that effect comes from a leading Sunni tribal leader in Anbar, via AP:

A prominent Iraqi Sunni leader said Friday that the insurgency in Iraq could end if the U.S. showed determination to stop the influence of pro-Iranian Shiite militias there.

"The Americans must act seriously and abolish those militias, confiscate their weapons, arrest their criminals and at the same time stop the Iranian influence which is penetrating all of Iraq, including the government," said Sheik Majeed al-Gaood, a prominent tribal leader in Anbar province, the heartland of the Sunni insurgency.

Al-Gaood is a leading member of a Sunni family that plays a major role in tribal politics in Anbar. He is believed to have close ties with factions of former dictator Saddam Hussein's disbanded Baath Party.

Al-Gaood has previously said a truce with the United States was possible if the Shiite-dominated government of Iraq were "dismissed" and new elections held. He said he was committed to the unity of Iraq and wanted sectarian violence to end.

"We are very keen to stop the bloodshed of our people," he told an Associated Press reporter by telephone from the Jordanian capital, Amman. Al-Gaood suggested that the end of the insurgency was contingent, however, on ending Iranian influence in Iraq.

"Iran is a worse enemy for Iraq than the United States," he said.

Iraq has been crippled by violence between Sunni and Shiite Muslims since the U.S.-led overthrow of Saddam Hussein and his Sunni-led government in 2003. Hussein's overthrow led to the election of a Shiite-dominated government and kicked off fighting between the two religious groups that has claimed tens of thousands of lives.

Iran, which is overwhelmingly Shiite, is widely believed to be supporting several armed Shiite militias in Iraq.

Al-Gaood heads a group called "Wahaj el Iraq," or "Flame of Iraq," a Sunni-dominated Iraqi political faction believed to have close ties to the disbanded Baath Party.

Al-Gaood said that talks with Shiite militias were out of the question and that his group would side with all "Iraqis who reject the occupation and want to preserve the unity of Iraq."