Quote:
Originally posted by Conclamo Ludus
I'm speaking outside of administration lines. I'm talking about in general. I agree with Sparhawks argument but I don't think it was against what I said. I'm just saying that you can't negotiate with terrorists. Whether or not Bush is painting terrorist on everybody's face is beside the point. I'm speaking simply about terrorism not necessarily Bush's "terrorism".
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Fair enough, then let's get particular. I agree that you can't negotiate with al-Quaida, and yet there is the Kurdish Terrorist group in Northern Iraq that we did come to an agreement with, and which is turning around to bite us.
But this was all brought up in relation to North Korea, and, by extension, the Axis of Evil. These are not terrorist regimes; they are merely regimes America doesn't like (for all sorts of good reasons), and which George Bush particularly hates (for not such good reasons). Now, I am not saying that none of them support terrorism - Iran certainly does, and Iraq might have indulged in what amounted to cheerleaderism as relates to that nasty little war in Israel. (When both sides target innocent civilians, is it still terrorism, or is it just a particularly ugly war?) But North Korea? I don't think so. And supporting terrorism is something that can be negotiated away, maybe. Certainly worth a shot, and probably cost a lot less than $87 biliion plus whatever it acually cost to prosecute the latest spasm in Iraq.
Further, I think a large proportion of those who might ally themselves with al-Quaida because al-Quaida has successfully made us afraid (and very, very angry, and they will in time learn, when there is someone in power of a mind to quit shilly shallying around with pissant dictators and do the necessary on them, was most unwise; They don't market that last part, though -) aren't really so much with the program as along for the ride. Find them, negotiate with them, find what their gripes are and solve what we can of them (with Israel specifically off the table), and we have a natural source of human intelligence. This is something we desparately need in the Muslim world, and something we have been sadly lacking for as long as I have been alive anyway.
Kids need to come out of the bath now, but that's pretty much what I wanted to say anyway.