Read this disgusting post found in the Guardian:
Top Blair aide: we must talk to al-Qaida
Former No 10 chief says Irish peace process showed link to enemy needed
Jonathan Powell, who served as Blair’s chief of staff from 1995 to 2007 and is widely regarded as having been instrumental in negotiating a settlement in Northern Ireland, said his experience in the province convinced him that it was essential to keep a line of communication open even with one’s most bitter enemies.
Powell said: “There’s nothing to say to al-Qaida and they’ve got nothing to say to us at the moment, but at some stage you’re going to have to come to a political solution as well as a security solution. And that means you need the ability to talk.”
Idiot.
Read the rest here.
Dj Konservo is best viewed with the 
8 Comments
I actually agree with him. I very much doubt that any agreement would be reached, but the possibility, however slight, is always there. Also, by communicating with them we could potentially get some useful information, about their mood, if nothing else. I’m also just generally against refusing to talk to people; it strikes me as silly and childish, especially if you then call a press conference and say, “Well, I’m not talking to X, but if I were talking to them, here’s what I would say.” It’s even worse if you’re negotiating with someone about negotiating with them.
Sergei,
From what aQ has said already, I don’t think we need to hear any more. Unless it’s unconditional surrender. A reason not establish open dialogue is that, as in the case of Abu Sabaya of Abu Sayyaf, sometimes the terrorist is craving fame as well as money, death to America, &c. &c.
Bear in mind, I’m not talking about Condoleezza Rice and Azzam al-Amriki sitting at a table in Geneva, surrounded by dignitaries and reporters. I’m talking more about something like the hotline from the Cold War. It’s entirely possible that this is going on already, although I doubt it.
As for unconditional surrender, I don’t see any reason for insisting on that. Agreeing to let Osama see the sun for an hour or so every five years in order to end the conflict a bit earlier — thereby saving several American and Allied lives — seems reasonable to me. Likewise, we have no real quarrel with, for example, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. A deal in which they are spared prosecution in exchange for putting down their weapons and reconciling with the Algerian government would probably be acceptable, and would obviate spending a decade or two working with Algiers to root them out.
There are definitely some things we cannot compromise on. Osama bin Laden must spend the rest of his natural life in solitary confinement. The other people involved in carrying out the attacks must likewise receive punishments proportionate to their involvement. Besides that, though, there are plenty of minor issues we can negotiate.
“money, death to America, &c. &c.”
has sort of become an unofficial tourism promotion slogan. Even as far back as the hostage crisis, anti-Americanism was heavily commercialized, with countless gift shops, refreshment stands, and so on springing up around the embassy, and Iranians who had come to gawk obligingly forming angry mobs whenever a reporter appeared, regardless of how they actually felt about the US. On a related note, Khomeini and the Iranian press referred to the embassy as a “nest of spies” (lâneh-ye jâsusi), and now that’s the name of the nearest bus stop.
Fun fact: Because anti-Americanism is such a large part of the Islamic Republic’s image, “Marg bar Amrikâ” (”Death to America”
al-kieda says all the Jews have to die. Think we can chat them down to just half the Jews? Let’s toss in the Presbyterians and Sikhs for good measure. Think that will keep them satisfied? For how long.
It will not stop until we kill ten percent of islam. Ten percent of a little over a billion is a little over one-hundred million.
“Think we can chat them down to just half the Jews?”
Obviously not. I’m talking about plea deals, not surrender.
“It will not stop until we kill ten percent of islam.”
Might I ask where you got that number?
Sergei,
There’s a bus stop in Fairfax City that I think we should start calling ‘The Nest of Flies”
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