Negotiating is NOT appeasement ... how quickly we forget!

While we were refusing to talk ... forty years ago--the result of shooting first and asking questions later!

My brother Richard in Connecticut sent me an excellent newspaper article that listed several instances in which presidents and others "talked" to our enemies (rogue nations) in order to avoid an escalation of bloodshed. None of these resulted in direct conflict and, in fact, were largely the reason that the Cold War (as one example) was ended. I will likely blog more extensively on the issue of negotiating versus appeasement in coming days.

But this week, we saw yet another result of simply shooting first and asking questions (talking) later. A U.S. helicopter strike north of Baghdad (in Beiji) killed eight people in a vehicle, including at least three children. Iraqi officials in Beiji insisted all the dead were civilians. The Iraqi Colonel in Bieji described the victims as "farmers and children." The U.S. military said six were al-Qaida militants--but acknowledged "children were killed."

Like the My Lai massacre (partially) pictured above in one of the searing memories of the undeclared Vietnam War, children were clearly seen in the AP photographs taken in Beiji and I really doubt whether they cared whether we (the US) was or was not talking to the Shiite or Sunni insurgents in Iraq, Iran or anywhere else. In the case of Beiji, they were Sunni (as opposed to Shiite) whatevers (farmers, children, God only knows) and we may find ourselves back in the thick of it against Sunni insurgents--who have quietly slid onto our side while we're limiting the activities of the Shiites in most of the former strongholds of the Shiite militias.

What next? I suggest we "talk" to whoever and whomever ... quickly! There's still time for John McCain to become educated in Middle Eastern geopolitics while Mr. Bush turns his back on Big Oil and begins to negotiate with our "enemies" this summer and autumn.

If not ... just watch the headlines over the next several weeks and months.