The White House's hardline refusal of diplomacy was borne out of necessity. It's both a product of Bush's hardheaded personality and his complete lack of diplomatic skills.
Diplomacy requires a sophisticated set of skills and education, built up over decades of experience; You do not hire a poorly read, C-student with sophomoric communication skills to negotiate on behalf of the free world. However ideologically rigid Bush's team is, they are not stupid. They have supported - even built - this no-negotiation platform around Bush to protect our country from embarrassing and disastrous results.
The rest of the world has moved on without us, negotiating in the diplomatic vacuum we have created. Hopefully, Barak Obama plans to rejoin the world community after nearly a decade of diplomatic isolation which has spurred another round of inexplicable defensiveness from the right wing. Is it possible this change of policy would further underscore Bush's incompetence and further embarrass the White House and their supporters?
The question arises at once: Who do we need most to "talk" with? Our friends or our enemies? We, as a people, have made an art of preaching to the choir while progressively more often ignoring the congregants. Our allies, if we have any left, may need some occasional reassurances, but our enemies are the very people we should want to convert to our cause or, at the least, engage and, if necessary, make to seem fools before the world. We don't need to convert our allies and we don't need to make them look like fools. Oh, sorry, too late to avoid that last item. Lots of repair work to be done.
It takes courage and diplomatic skill to face an enemy and set forth terms and conditions, and remain open to alternatives, while not compromising on our essential security.
On appeasement: Handing Kim Jong II a suitcase full of cash so he won't threaten us with Nuclear weapons is the definition of appeasement.
On Hezbollah: What we don't bother to know/learn about Hezbollah and the ramifications of the divisions in Lebanon will be our undoing in the region. It is a bad idea not to engage these "enemies." It is necessary to comprehend them as something other than a 3rd grade stereotype of "evil." That we still define these organizations only as "evil," is an anthem to our foreign policy stupidity.
On Northern Ireland: Sir Hugh Orde was the chief of Police Services for Northern Ireland, and was up against the IRA for 30 years. He's recently pointed out that no terrorist conflict has ever been resolved solely through military means.
While this Administration and it's supporters divide the rest of the world into enemy tribes, according to their own false preconceptions and unexamined fantasies and simple-minded ignorance, they apply the same mythical approach within the USA, and too many Americans listen.
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