I was suggesting earlier that if we want peace we should begin by confronting the issues raised by al Qaeda head on, beginning with starting to talk with them (rather than just trying to annihilate them).

There was a good article on this in the Boston Globe, on Sept 14, 2005, by Mohammad Mahmoud Ould Mohamedou, associate director of the Program on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research at Harvard University.

His article is entitled "Time to talk to Al Qaeda?"

It begins:

"AS THE WAR between the United States and Al Qaeda enters its fifth year, the nature of the armed, transnational Islamist group's campaign remains misunderstood. With the conflict viewed largely as an open-and-shut matter of good versus evil, nonmilitary engagement with Al Qaeda is depicted as improper and unnecessary.

"Yet developing a strategy for the next phase of the global response to Al Qaeda requires understanding the enemy -- something Western analysts have systematically failed to do....

"Overwhelmingly centered on the martial aspects of the conflict, scholars and policymakers have been too focused on Al Qaeda's ''irrationality," ''fundamentalism," and ''hatred" -- and these conceptions continue to color key analyses.

I have to limit what I quote from it, for copyright reasons, but I recommend the article. It should be available from the Boston Globe online, or thru a library.

If we merely continue bombing and shooting, we're only going to succeed in further inviting al Qaeda to carry their struggle into the United States of America. If we don't want to see that happen, then I think we need to start advocating for a different approach than our current myopic and misguided "war" on terrorism.

Mike