TIME Magazine : Talking with the Enemy

TIME.com Print Page: TIME Magazine -- Talking with the Enemy

My right-wing friends (are you listening, Howie?) continually remind me that the "war on terrorism" is a necessity--even though there was no connection between terrorism and Iraq--because "you can never negotiate with terrorists." My right-wing friends, I have to say, have very little knowledge of history and even less understanding. So it should come as a bit of a surprise to them that we are, in fact, negotiating with those who we so recently labeled "terrorists" in Iraq, Sunni/Baathist elements of the insurgency there.

"Over the course of the war in Iraq, as the anti-U.S. resistance has grown in size and intensity, Administration officials have been steadfast in their refusal to negotiate with enemy fighters. But in recent months, the persistence of the fighting and signs of division in the ranks of the insurgency have prompted some U.S. officials to seek a political solution....

"Although they have no immediate plans to halt attacks on U.S. troops, they say their aim is to establish a political identity that can represent disenfranchised Sunnis and eventually negotiate an end to the U.S. military's offensive in the Sunni triangle. Their model is Sinn Fein, the political wing of the Irish Republican Army, which ultimately earned the I.R.A. a role in the Northern Ireland peace process."