Enemies and Evil Do'ers

There was once an EVIL EMPIRE known as the Soviet Union. They had ten thousand nuclear warheads pointed at us. They paraded them around Moscow. Their leaders talked about how they were going to bury us etc. And yet we talked to them, had a phone line between our President and their leader. In the 45 years of cold war between the US and the USSR we never really stopped talking. And we saved each others lives. There were plenty of people on both sides that would have liked us to slug it out in a big horrible, earth-ending, war. But calmer, more adult, minds won out and though we bitched at each other and spied on each other, and faught violent proxy wars in little counties like Vietnam and Afgahnistan (USSR War not our new one) we did not go to war directly with each other. And so you and I are still alive and the earth is not a dead rock.

So when Bin Laden goes out and asks for a truce or to negotiate we should not simply say that he is the bad guy and we don't talk to bad guys. That is a childish response, not the response of a Super Power. The US is too big to muck around in the simplminded world of good vs evil. There are usually a multitude of ways to skin a cat. Some ways require talking. Even if that talking is to the very cat needing to be skinned. This takes skill, leadership, commitment to life, commitment to American greatness, and the ability to actually believe that we are worth fighting for.

I remember the God given opportunity that Bush and Iran passed up when both leaders were in Rome for the funeral for Pope John Paul II. Sometimes the initiative must be siezed when the opportunity presents itself. By asking for a meeting with Bin Laden we would put him on the defensive. IF he shows up he knows he could be killed. If he says no then he appears foolish or cowardly. By continuously allowing Bin Laden or his lueitenent to speak about truces, and meetings, we give them too much power. I would wish to force them to put up or shut up. I would say that in our world people talk to each other not shoot at each other. And If Bin Laden wishes to talk we can talk.