Obama Proposes Reaching Out To Terrorists
In an interview with the New York Times, Barack Obama showed not only his utter incompetence, but also his total lack of understanding of the issues America faces. He proposed reaching out to "moderate elements" of the Taliban and justified his statement with the following quote.
"If you talk to Gen. [David H.] Petraeus, I think he would argue that part of the success in Iraq involved reaching out to people that we would consider to be Islamic fundamentalists, but who were willing to work with us because they had been completely alienated by the tactics of al-Qaida in Iraq. There may be some comparable opportunities in Afghanistan and the Pakistani region."
While it is nice to see that in at least some instances he is willing to try to learn from history, it is not suprising to see that he totally blows the lesson to be learned. What was done in Iraq was to reach out to Iraqi people who were starting to get angry with the attacks that Al Qaida was launching against their people. We did not reach out to memebers of AL Qaida.There is, however, a longstanding position in the United States of not reaching out to terrorists.
This negligent idea of Obama's can be seen also in his administrations dealings with the Palestinian Authority. The key to understanding this is to realize the ignorance of believeing that there is such a thing as a moderate terrorist. This administration believes it can donate money to Fatah (the "moderate terrorists") and keep it out of the hands of Hamas (the full fledged terrorists).
While it might be nice to be so naive, it is galactically stupid to think these hair brained schemes will work. Or does he? On the heels of the news that Fayyad will step down as Prime Minister, the White House has not recinded or placed a hold on their promise of money. They have also openly stated that they are pushing for a unity government of Hamas and Fatah. If one is trying to keep the money out of Hamas hands, why ask that Hamas be included in the government of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip?
But even without Hamas included, why would we have dealings with Fatah? According to the Council on Foreign Relations, Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade is a Fatah affiliated faction and they are currently on the State Departments list of terroist organizations. It is against our own best interest to negotiate with these people, let alone give money to them. This administration needs to wake up to the very real threat of terrorism across the globe. One way or another they will, let's just hope that they can learn the lesson the easy way. We all remember what it is like to learn it the hard way.