It’s been a bedrock of administration policy: we don’t negotiate with terrorists.
Although Al Qaeda-linked groups recently executed two kidnapped civilian workers, the United States continues to maintain it will not negotiate with terrorists, whatever the price — even if violence against Americans and their allies gets worse.
“I think there’s a likelihood [attacks could escalate in Iraq and Saudi Arabia] and that’s certainly the philosophy behind refusing to negotiate with terrorists,” said Robert Jordan, a former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia. “I think it’s a sound philosophy — one that’s proved the test of time … that should be continued.”
Indeed, the very suggestion has seemed wholly unacceptable. To negotiate with those who kill Americans is to give in to intimidation. Sitting down with killers for a chat about their “demands,” we’re told, is nothing less than appeasement, rewarding terrorists for their crimes. If Americans negotiated with terrorists, the policy argues, we’d simply encourage more terrorism.
Nevertheless, the Bush administration seems to have abandoned this position altogether.
U.S. diplomats and intelligence officers are conducting secret talks with Iraq’s Sunni insurgents on ways to end fighting there, Time magazine reported yesterday, citing Pentagon and other sources.
The Bush administration has said it would not negotiate with Iraqi fighters and there is no authorized dialogue, but the United States is having “back-channel” communications with certain insurgents, unidentified Washington and Iraqi sources told the magazine.
The magazine cited a secret meeting between two members of the U.S. military and an Iraqi negotiator, a former member of Saddam Hussein’s government and the senior representative of what he called the nationalist insurgency.
A U.S. officer tried to get names of other insurgent leaders while the Iraqi complained that the new Shiite-dominated government was being controlled by Iran, according to an account of the meeting provided by the Iraqi negotiator. “We are ready to work with you,” the Iraqi negotiator said, according to Time.
The “we” includes insurgents killing American troops, and the “you” includes the United States government.
You’re either with us or you’re against us — but if you’re against us, that doesn’t preclude us getting together to discuss how we might get you to stop killing Americans.