Top Takes on National Security - Is negotiating with an Islamist entity a good idea?

(Compiler's note: This is a must read article to prepare you for what you will observe next on the world stage.)

by Family Security Matters National Security Team

Alex Alexiev

So President Obama wants to reach out to "moderates" in the Taliban. Let's imagine for a moment that such exotic specimens actually existed and that we were able to find them and make a deal with them. What might they want from us in return for a cease fire? What they'd want is exactly what they recently got in Swat, a federal territory, where the Pakistani government recognized Taliban control of the territory and their right to impose shariah. In other words, Islamabad allowed them to accomplish what they had not been able to achieve by force of arms. Put another way, Islamabad implicitly sanctioned the Taliban's right to burn girls' schools on its sovereign territory.

But why be cynical? Surely somebody as well-intentioned as Mr. Obama should be able to find some moderate fanatics even among the Taliban - as long as he continues to speak softly and carries no stick.

- Alex Alexiev is an adjunct fellow at the Hudson Institute Washington, D.C.

Sandra Carney

The naïveté and inexperience of this President are astounding and frightening!

He does not understand the fundamental difference between those in Iraq, brutal as they may have been and the Taliban in Afghanistan, who are indoctrinated with the teachings of Mohammed. One cannot negotiate with religious fanatics.

The consequences for America's safety under this kind of leadership is bleak to say the very least!

- Sandra Carney is keenly interested in world events and fiercely protective of her adopted country, the U.S.A.

Lee Ellis

Islamic Terrorists have been trained from birth to regard negotiation as a form of weakness. They will use this time not for bargaining, but to size up their enemy's needs and plan an ambush that will hone in on those perceived weaknesses. America must always display strength; it is the only quality terrorists respect.

- Lee Ellis is a retired journalist, narrator, and formerly a Vice President with both CBS and Gannett (USA Weekend). He can be contacted at indiolee@dc.rr.com.

Paul Hollrah

Yes, negotiating with Islamist terrorists may be worth a try. Out here in Oklahoma we have a large number of people who have always insisted that it’s possible to negotiate with rattlesnakes. The idea is to simply kneel down in front of the snake, look him squarely in the eye, and say, "Now lookie here, snake! If we're gonna' occupy the same piece of real estate, we're gonna' have to open up a meaningful dialogue (I think that's the term liberals use)."

Actually, most of those people are now dead. Those who are not have noses very much like Bill Clinton's. But rattlesnakes and Islamists are not exactly the same breed of cat, so Obama should probably be encouraged to engage in a bit of personal diplomacy. When he doesn't return, we'll search for him... for a while.

- Paul Hollrah is a Senior Fellow at the Lincoln Heritage Institute.

M. Zuhdi Jasser

President Obama’s recent overture to the Taliban not only sends a dangerous message of appeasement to our sworn enemies, but it sends a lethal message of abandonment to all those who have suffered the oppression of the Taliban. He is effectively telling the Taliban that “we will work with you.” Is President Obama unable to see the evil that has been perpetrated against humanity over the years by these Islamists? How can a Presidential candidate who campaigned on a message of “change” turn around as President and completely abandon those who seek change away from the thugs and theocrats of the Taliban of Afghanistan?

There is absolutely no evidence whatsoever that the Taliban can be trusted or serve as any type of viable “partner” in a negotiation of the future of Afghanistan and global security. They have in fact repeatedly proven to be sworn enemies of freedom and liberty. They will tell the Obama administration what it wants to hear in order to get American advocates for liberty out of Afghanistan and allow them to reestablish their Islamist oppressive regime in the region. Rather than empowering our anti-Islamist Muslim allies in the region who are already underfunded and outmatched, President Obama is giving our ideological allies the signal that the United States “would rather sit with your oppressors and get short term assurances of stability than sit with real agents of anti-Islamist change.” President Obama may yearn for quick solutions, but in so doing he places our long term global security in peril.

- M. Zuhdi Jasser is the founder and Chairman of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy based in Phoenix Arizona. He is a former U.S. Navy Lieutenant Commander, a physician in private practice, and a community activist. He can be reached at Zuhdi@aifdemocracy.org.

Jim Kouri, CPP

President Barack Obama – like most political people who never faced battle nor held a real job – is following the same pattern that led to September 11, 2001. His enthusiasm for discussion provides a sign to our enemies that the Obama Administration is weak. When his Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that North Korea's pursuit of strategic nuclear weapons was 'unhelpful,' my reaction was “duh, ya think?” These people are amateurs playing at geopolitics, and our enemies know it.

- Jim Kouri, CPP is currently fifth vice-president of the National Association of Chiefs of Police and he's a staff writer for the New Media Alliance.

Geoff Metcalf

"Negotiating" with extremists is epically myopic and counter intuitive. It never has , and never will, yield a benefit with extremists. Negotiating is a sign of weakness to an adversary who by definition will not compromise.

Embracing negotiation as policy in Afghanistan exceeds mere naïveté. It is a recipe for disaster...basic “scorpion and the frog” stuff.

- Geoff Metcalf, a former Green Beret and retired Army officer, is a nationally syndicated author and major market radio show host. E-mail Geoff at geoff@geoffmetcalf.com.

Adrian Morgan

A Suicidal Folly Not Worthy Of a President

Obama's suggestion to the NYT about seeking out "alienated" Islamists in Afghanistan is deeply worrying. Richard Holbrooke could never make such a venture successful. The Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan have never been known to compromise and should any Taliban try to talk to the West their life would be worth little. In Pakistan's tribal regions countless civilians have been beheaded by the Taliban, merely because of unfounded rumors that they "spied" for the US. A disaffected Islamist is still an Islamist, forever opposed to everything the West stands for. In Pakistan and Afghanistan, teachers are killed and schools continue to be blown up, merely because they educated girl children. The Taliban's Deobandi faith commands them to revile the rights of women and to impose brutal sharia laws (killing adulterers, or just any woman who wears make-up, beheading other women). If Obama wants to act like Neville Chamberlain, then he will cheapen the role of the U.S. presidency.

- Adrian Morgan is a British-based writer and artist who has written for Western Resistance since its inception. He also writes for Spero News.

Maj. W. Thomas Smith, Jr.

Negotiating with terrorists accomplishes five things, each of which favors the terrorists.

First, negotiations buy them time, and time is everything to a Jihadist. Second, arranged talks lend an air of legitimacy to the terrorists, which emboldens them and serves as an enabler of their recruiting efforts. Third, an expressed desire to negotiate with terrorists sends a message to all terrorists that suicide bombings and the deliberate targeting of non-combatants is an effective tool to achieve one's aims. Fourth, our reaching out to terrorists makes us appear weak and somewhat desperate in their eyes. Lastly, Jihadists deceive – in fact lie – to "infidels" as a matter of policy through the Islamic principle of al taqiyya which is justifiable according to their faith. So any attempt to negotiate with the bad guys only sets us up, whereas it is advantageous to them on every level.

- Visit W. Thomas Smith Jr. at uswriter.com.

Joan Swirsky

It’s always a wise idea to leftists who, historically, have failed to learn that our enemies mean what they say when they threaten to annihilate us. As the Chinese now act provocatively toward the U.S. Navy in the South China Sea, Hugo Chávez steals an American oil company operating in Venezuela, an American is beheaded in Mexico and the Mexican drug wars invade the United States, Iran forges ahead with its nuclear-weapons program, North Korea rattles its nuclear sabers, emboldened terrorists murder 30 people in Baghdad with a car bomb, and Hamas fires rockets into Israel daily, President Obama extends a “negotiating” hand to the murderous, er “moderate,” Taliban, offers to give up American Missile Defense in exchange for Russia’s eternally unreliable “help” with Iran, makes overtures to terrorist-harboring Syria, offers over $20 million to Palestinians (read, Hamas) to migrate to the U.S., and suggests relaxing sanctions toward Communist Cuba, on and on and on. Meanwhile, Ahmadinejad demands the U.S. apologize for 60 years of insults, Putin says yes to no missile defense but no to help with Iran, Chavez invites Obama to join the Socialist revolution, and, I imagine, the Taliban and Hamas, are – in Internet lingo – rolling on the floor laughing at the stupefying naïveté of the new American president.

- Joan Swirsky is a New York-based journalist and author who can be contacted at joansharon@aol.com.