Republicans in Laytonland: Talk to the Taliban

[tuvor]

(Jack Layton, for those who don't know, is the leader of the NDP, Canada's leftwing party.)

From Thursday's Globe and Mail

Bill Frist, the Bush Republican who is the Senate majority leader, has come out -- à la Jack Layton -- in favour of undertaking negotiations with the Taliban in Afghanistan.

<snip>

Mr. Layton, the NDP Leader, must be bemused to see support coming from some upper regions of the Republican Party. When he put forward his pitch for diplomacy in his own country, the elites tore him to shreds. He was ridiculed by many of the same people who called him an idiot for his positions on Iraq -- but who turned out to be not so bright themselves.

Negotiate with the Taliban? Talk to the enemy, to terrorists? Unconscionable, they said, knees jerking like football players in warm-up routines. How can we even think of it?

In fact, negotiations of that sort have been thought of and done on numerous occasions. We negotiated with the FLQ during the 1970 October Crisis. Tony Blair negotiated with the Irish Republican Army. Washington negotiated with Libya's Moammar Gadhafi and, of course, the Evil Empire. In Uganda, the government has been talking to the fanatical Lord's Resistance Army. Anyone with the slightest acquaintance with history can find dozens of other examples.

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