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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: michael97123 who wrote (188646)	6/7/2006 12:19:21 PM
From: cnyndwllr	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Between all out war and diplomacy only, we must find middle ground. You may be able to negotiate with iran but you cant negotiate with bin laden, so the question becomes how best to fight al quaeda besides defensive policing at home. Actually, you could negotiate with Bin Ladin, there is a political agenda underlying his murderous tactics and he's not simply a mad dog psychopath, it's just that you wouldn't want to. The best way to fight Al Queda or other international terrorist cells is no longer an option because Bush blew it. We need the full cooperation of the rest of the world and particularly the Islamic nations so that we can gather information and pursue mechanisms to undercut the appeal that terrorism holds among the populations where it thrives. Our actions in Iraq, our arrogance in words and deeds and things like the torture and murder scandals have made that absolutely impossible. Most of those who could offer us help are now lending their heartfelt support to those who want to kill us. Where does that leave us? We now have a lot of work and a lot of years ahead of us before we can get back to square one. The first step will be to get out of Iraq and to avoid making the Iraq mistake in Afghanistan or some other Muslim country. The second step will be to deftly walk the line between a "do no harm" policy in the region and encouragement of those factions that support our interests. That means that if the region turns to Islamic leadership supported by the people, even radical Islamic leadership, then we stay the hell out of it and let them try what they think they want. It's their region and sometimes if you let people have what they think they want they learn to want something else. The third step will be to take a portion of the enormous human and economic resources that we're squandering in Iraq and devote them to the doable problem of plugging up some the most serious national security gaps and to the tremendously difficult job of seriously seeking out those criminal terrorists who would do us great harm. The fourth step will be for many of us to learn to live with uncertainty in life when it comes to the threat of death from terrorism. It's not a very great risk to any one of us but it's scary and, like auto wrecks, hurricanes, disease and other life-ending possibilities, a certain amount of acceptance is necessary or you'll end up a permanently scared and angry person. Life's too short to live like that. As for Iraq, it's out of our hands, more now than ever. The sooner we accept that, the better. And yes, there will be more blood spilled there and much of it will be on our hands, but it is what it is. Ed