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Friday, January 27, 2006

Negotiating With Idiots

Come off your high horse if you think refusing to negotiate with 'terrorists' is a realistic plan. I'm totally not defending suicide bombers, but no terrorist group has ever mounted a serious threat without popular support, and popular support indicates legitiate (if sometimes incorrectly understood) grievances.

If you let Hamas candidates run in an election, you have to know they might win, right? Look at Northern Ireland, and ask yourself if it's better to have exploding trains or elections that don't turn out like you planned.

Also ask yourself, if you had to choose, do you want to board a commuter train that blows up or have your house sprayed by a helicopter gunship? If you're anything like me, you don't think that's much of a choice, yet one is supposedly terrorism and the other is a 'security measure.'

Personally, I wouldn't say that any nation state has the 'right' to exist. Nation states have governments, and governments are not a good idea, whether you put Hamas or the GOP, the ANC, the Communist Party or the fucking Taliban in charge.

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