States Negotiating With Terrorists Is Nothing New

How indeed? One could also ask how Canada, or any civilized state, could talk to Saudi Arabia, where a woman can be stoned to death simply for the "crime" of having been raped. One could also ask Rae how he felt in 2003 when he journeyed to Sri Lanka to talk to Tamil Tiger terrorists — the original suicide bombers — about a negotiated settlement to that country's civil war. The official explanation behind Rae's mission — heartily supported by Ottawa at the time — was that for ordinary Sri Lankans, anything was better than more war. The truth is that civilized countries talk to terrorists all the time. After years of terrorism in Northern Ireland, Britain's Tony Blair negotiated a deal with the Irish Republican Army. In 1962, France ended its bitter colonial war in Algeria by handing over control of that country to the terrorist Front de libération National. In 1990, South Africa's apartheid regime realized it had no option except to talk to the African National Congress rebels it had characterized as terrorists. In 1948, Britain negotiated the details of its pullout from Palestine with a Zionist movement that included terrorists. Even Israel has negotiated prisoner exchanges with organizations, such as Hezbollah, that it considers terrorist. http://tinyurl.com/lksgz [Proofreader's note: this article was edited for spelling and typos on September 18, 2006]

Note: http://tinyurl.com/lksgz