It seems that Obama’s people are flipping out over President Bush’s comments regarding negotiating with radical terrorists – claiming they were an unfair criticism of Obama. Bush never mentioned anyone by name - and Obama’s NOT the only one that the statement applies to – but obviously Obama understands that the shoe fits!

Obama HAS stated, and even published on his website, that he’d negotiate with despotic regimes such as Iran without pre-condition. The shoe DOES indeed fit!

Unfortunately, what the Left in this country does not yet understand is that there are those with whom negotiation is, at best, an exercise in futility.

As I wrote in a December, 2006 article which now appears in a textbook, “Current Controversies – The Middle East” published by Greenhaven Press: Dipomacy/Negotiation: The West is obsessed with talk. Political correctness demands that everything be negotiated and worked out across the table. Perhaps this is desirable amongst the nations of polite society; however negotiation is by definition the art of compromise. Compromise is the finding of a middle ground which can be mutually acceptable.

Unfortunately, for the jihadis there is no acceptable middle ground. Convert or kill all infidels, or die trying, is their only option. They will, however, use our obsession with negotiation to their own advantage. Placating us with talk, they gain opportunity to regroup, rearm, and strategize their next attack. Witness the result of Israel’s giveaway of Gaza!

Diplomacy is only possible where both sides are capable of compromise. When one party to a negotiation has an immutable agenda and the willingness to die in the pursuit of its fulfillment, there is nothing to be gained by negotiation as there is no possibility of mitigating their position. There is no mutually beneficial or mutually acceptable common ground. To believe otherwise is little more than politically correct pie-in-the-sky pipe dreaming.

It is a shame that the American people (and more importantly, the American Body Politic) STILL understand neither the nature of the threat nor the motivations of the enemy that is at war with us.

Doug Edelman

St. Peters