Thw Written Word: May 24th

By Rafe Mair

President General Pervez Musharraf has stated that the western powers should negotiate with the Taliban which, I assume, means dealing with el Quaeda as well.

Needless to say this has not sat well with the United States. General Musharraf has, however pointed out that his country is the battleground and that while the United States gets upset unto huge headlines when an American soldier is killed 500 dead Pakistanis scarcely raise a Western eyebrow and are sloughed off as of little importance.

The accepted wisdom is that you don’t reward bad actions with negotiations. This will, it’s said, simply encourage more evil.

What this fails to take into consideration is the Iran Contra deal where, amongst other things, the US rewarded Iran for releasing hostages. It certainly doesn’t consider the long negotiations Britain has had with the IRA whose terrorist activities need no repeating. The United States is negotiating with North Korea, with Myanmar, one of the most oppressive regimes in the world.

What is certain is that no one in their right mind would have ever expected to see a photo of smiling Ian Paisley and a smiling Martin McGuinness. While it’s always too early to predict a happy conclusion in Ireland, there is real hope there now .

The United States and the UK can refuse to deal with the Taliban – that’s their prerogative.

All I say is for God’s sake don’t pretend that it’s for some lofty philosophical principles.

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