Know thy enemy

I'm with Ezra on this one. I mean, what if all it takes to get Bin Laden to turn himself and his fellow terrorists in is a promise of fresh towels and a mint on their jail cell pillow? Are you saying that those demands aren't worth an end to the war on terror?

Of course, demands by Al Qaeda would be far more serious and more likely to involve things we would be unable to support. And I'm not here to suggest that we cave in to everything, because that would simply provoke further attacks by other organizations and be an appeasement style peace at best.

But there are reasons to believe that more knowledge leads to a better defense. And we can listen to the guy without acting on anything, still beat our chests and declare we don't negotiate with terrorists, and no one loses any sleep over the deal. But we would be able to better access the threat and move to protect any newly threatened interests that may arise because of it.

We've been trying the big stick approach for years now, with marginal success. Perhaps now is the time to speak softly and see where it can get us.