We will not negotiate with terrorists

[Idaho]

Lets subject this to some intelligent debate (god help it). What is this statement all about, what is it's reality and purpose. And as a policy is it ever workable?

I put it to the backroom that it's empty rhetoric for three reasons:

1) Practical - Negotiation is inevitable in any contest which cannot be fought out by force alone. It is desireable from a practical political and military standpoint to war with words sometimes. Treaties are the end result of all wars that aren't genocidal colonial.

2) Political - It is merely what the American people want/expect to hear and what the politicians want/expect to say. No one really wants to committ political suicide by going against the ingrained mantra.

3) Philosophical - Because all communication is in effect negotiation. Saying "we will not negotiate" is in itself a type of negotiation. Field agents, politicians and diplomats are continuously talking and negotiating this war on terror at the fringes.

I leave it open to the floor.

[Papewaio]

WWII was a non-negotiable surrender.

Surrender without prejudice or conditions. It was not negotiable at all.

1. The German Command agrees to the surrender of all German armed forces in Holland, in northwest Germany including the Frisian Islands and Heligoland and all other islands, in Schleswig-Holstein, and in Denmark, to the C.-in-C. 21 Army Group. This to include all naval ships in these areas. These forces to lay down their arms and to surrender unconditionally.

The White House. May 8, 1945. [5]

Nazi Germany has been defeated.

The Japanese people have felt the weight of our land, air, and naval attacks. So long as their leaders and the armed forces continue the war the striking power and intensity of our blows will steadily increase and will bring utter destruction to Japan's industrial war production, to its shipping, and to everything that supports its military activity.

The longer the war lasts, the greater will be the suffering and hardships which the people of Japan will undergo-all in vain. Our blows will not cease

[5] Department of State Bulletin, July 22, 1945.

Page 46

until the Japanese military and naval forces lay down their arms in unconditional surrender.

Just what does the unconditional surrender of the armed forces mean for the Japanese people?

It means the end of the war.

It means the termination of the influence of the military leaders who have brought Japan to the present brink of disaster.

It means provision for the return of soldiers and sailors to their families, their farms, their jobs.

It means not prolonging the present agony and suffering of the Japanese in the vain hope of victory.

Unconditional surrender does not mean the extermination or enslavement of the Japanese people.

Non-negotiable end to a war and not requiring genocide.

[bmolsson]

bin Laden and the terrorist are not a country. They can not be defeated through warfare. But they can not be negotiated with either. Bush approach is in my view incorrect, but he is right in not negotiating with bin Laden.
The only way to beat the terrorism is to bring all democracies together and police the occurance of terrorism. It's only you, me and our neighbours that can react to terrorism activity. The more open and transparant a society is, the more difficult is it to have secret sects and terrorist cells operating. Furthermore, people with success will be less interested in destruction.......

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

It's only you, me and our neighbours that can react to terrorism activity.

React, as in force?

The more open and transparant a society is, the more difficult is it to have secret sects and terrorist cells operating.

What's a transparent society, and what does it look like?

[Kaiser of Arabia]

We should start using tactical nukes to take out where we think these terrorists are. That's our negotiation.

[Idaho]

We should start using tactical nukes to take out where we think these terrorists are. That's our negotiation.

Good plan.

Oh look - there's a few suspects in Kaiser's city!

*repeatedly presses launch button*

[Papewaio]

What's a transparent society, and what does it look like?

A nuddist colony and it makes it hard to smuggle bombs... also it would be extremely hard to vote for these old hardline politicians... The Democrats in Australia would probably do a lot better in the polls :



Vs Labour



Vs John Howard Prime Minister:

[Kaiser of Arabia]

A nuddist colony and it makes it hard to smuggle bombs... also it would be extremely hard to vote for these old hardline politicians... The Democrats in Australia would probably do a lot better in the polls :



Vs Labour



Vs John Howard Prime Minister:

...yeah...

I still vote nukes.