On the Importance of Talking to Our Enemies
Despite official hands thrown up in the air and much titty-twisting on the part of the Bush Regime and their friends in Israel, former President and Nobel Laureate Jimmy Carter went off to the Middle East this week to try his hand at actually Doing Something in that region.
You see, the Bushies ignored Israel and its problems until Kim Jong Bush's second term when his masters apparently thought there might be some good that can be resurrected from the morass we've been stuck in. Hence, the so-called "Road Map," which has amounted to a puddle of loose runny dog stool. The Palestinian elections (which, of course, Bush had to stick his rhetorical foot in) resulted in Gaza being run by Hamas and the West Bank being run by Fatah.
Hamas and Fatah were both classified as terrorist organizations back in the day, but Fatah was rehabilitated in the 90s so that it could have a brief luster of legitimacy.
Enter Jimmy Carter, who apparently believes the Biblical beatitude about "blessed are the peacemakers" to an extent that the Christian Zionists and religious zealots in the White House never will, who decided to try his hand at talking to Hamas.
Well, he tried. Hamas offered a 10-year truce in exchange for Israel withdrawing to its pre-1967 borders, but balked at changing their charter to finally recognize the Jewish state's right to exist.
But that's the damned point.
Talk is cheap, and you might just get somewhere by talking. The genius of American foreign policy has, historically, been that we will talk to anyone. Even our deepest existential enemies, like the Nazis, the Fascists and the Communists. Remember? A Red-baiting right-winger sent Kissinger to Beijing, then went himself to talk to Chou and Mao personally. A triumph of American diplomacy.
If we'd bothered to actually sit down and talk to Iran, who knows what the two sides might accomplish?
Or Hamas?
Now, before someone starts breathing forth fire and slaughter on me, I will not advocate talking to al Qaeda. They have injured us, and deserve punishment first (oh, and while we're at it, wouldn't it be fair to publicly admit that the Saudis supplied 15 of the 19 9/11 hijackers?)
You see, the Bushies ignored Israel and its problems until Kim Jong Bush's second term when his masters apparently thought there might be some good that can be resurrected from the morass we've been stuck in. Hence, the so-called "Road Map," which has amounted to a puddle of loose runny dog stool. The Palestinian elections (which, of course, Bush had to stick his rhetorical foot in) resulted in Gaza being run by Hamas and the West Bank being run by Fatah.
Hamas and Fatah were both classified as terrorist organizations back in the day, but Fatah was rehabilitated in the 90s so that it could have a brief luster of legitimacy.
Enter Jimmy Carter, who apparently believes the Biblical beatitude about "blessed are the peacemakers" to an extent that the Christian Zionists and religious zealots in the White House never will, who decided to try his hand at talking to Hamas.
Well, he tried. Hamas offered a 10-year truce in exchange for Israel withdrawing to its pre-1967 borders, but balked at changing their charter to finally recognize the Jewish state's right to exist.
But that's the damned point.
Talk is cheap, and you might just get somewhere by talking. The genius of American foreign policy has, historically, been that we will talk to anyone. Even our deepest existential enemies, like the Nazis, the Fascists and the Communists. Remember? A Red-baiting right-winger sent Kissinger to Beijing, then went himself to talk to Chou and Mao personally. A triumph of American diplomacy.
If we'd bothered to actually sit down and talk to Iran, who knows what the two sides might accomplish?
Or Hamas?
Now, before someone starts breathing forth fire and slaughter on me, I will not advocate talking to al Qaeda. They have injured us, and deserve punishment first (oh, and while we're at it, wouldn't it be fair to publicly admit that the Saudis supplied 15 of the 19 9/11 hijackers?)
posted by Walt at 3:39 PM
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