Refusing to negotiate with terrorists is actually what got them to change tactics from plane hijackings and hostage release negotiations to suicide-bombing places packed with innocents once the plane hijacking started ending with special forces killing the hijackers instead of prisoner releases and their planes landing in non-extraditable countries. After they realized death was the only thing that awaited them for fighting for their various causes (the ETA, Red Army Faction, PLO, etc.), they embraced death before dishonor, turned to martyrdom, and started suicide bombing buses and market places and then releasing their demands afterwards--noting that the "martyrdom operations" would continue until demands are met. The Palestinian resistance still operates on this basis. As does Al Qaeda. Refusing to negotiate with terrorists is what got us 9/11/01. When you can't bargain with your enemies then the only option is to kill them until they stop doing what you don't want them to do. That's the message Bin Laden got from our refusal to negotiate with terrorists, so he turned to "martyrdom operations."
Refusing to negotiate with terrorists doesn't end the terrorism, it just makes the terrorism more lethal and less interested in compromise. When you stop negotiating with violent people, violence becomes the method of negotiation. When the talking stops, the bombing commences.
Appeasement won't work with Putin because his goals are too big. He will *never* settle for renting out Sevastopol. This is about rebuilding the Russian Empire and nothing less. That's why I've said from the start that we should have gotten involved because this doesn't end with Ukraine. Some fights you don't just sit around and wait for until they hit your doorstep. Sometimes you have to kill the baby in the crib. That's Putin.
By comparison, Al Qaeda's demands were much easier to satisfy absent decades of violence and counter-violence. Essentially, all we had to do was split ties with the corrupt Saudi government and get our troops out of the near east. That wasn't a very fucking difficult finger for us to lift during the 90's or even after 9/11. We could have winded down our presence there *without acknowledging our doing so* while hunting Bin Laden and Al Qaeda the way Israel hunted Black September after the '72 Munich Olympics. This "fighting while negotiating" style is exactly what the Taliban did to us after Mike Pompeo signed the withdrawal agreement by the way. The Taliban kept killing the Afghan Army (while refraining from attacking US troops per their promises) while we were withdrawing forces a thousand at a time. This is how you advance goals on the battlefield *and* in the strategic space simultaneously. The Taliban worked the fuck out of us, and then they still got the cherry on top when ISIS-K did what they would have loved to do but couldn't because of the withdraw agreement when ISIS-K suicide bombed Abbey Gate and killed 13 service members--including women. I can imagine the Taliban laughing their asses off about ISIS-K accidentally giving them a great series finale episode to watch. American leaders (both political and military) couldn't see this fighting-while-negotiating approach coming which is exactly how they got suckered in and humiliated at the end.
The base would do only as a possible face-saver, if that might matter. I agree with you about Putin's over-arching ambitions. Regarding ISIS, I still remember where I was when I heard that they had created a caliphate: "Oh shit."
Refusing to negotiate with terrorists is actually what got them to change tactics from plane hijackings and hostage release negotiations to suicide-bombing places packed with innocents once the plane hijacking started ending with special forces killing the hijackers instead of prisoner releases and their planes landing in non-extraditable countries. After they realized death was the only thing that awaited them for fighting for their various causes (the ETA, Red Army Faction, PLO, etc.), they embraced death before dishonor, turned to martyrdom, and started suicide bombing buses and market places and then releasing their demands afterwards--noting that the "martyrdom operations" would continue until demands are met. The Palestinian resistance still operates on this basis. As does Al Qaeda. Refusing to negotiate with terrorists is what got us 9/11/01. When you can't bargain with your enemies then the only option is to kill them until they stop doing what you don't want them to do. That's the message Bin Laden got from our refusal to negotiate with terrorists, so he turned to "martyrdom operations."
Refusing to negotiate with terrorists doesn't end the terrorism, it just makes the terrorism more lethal and less interested in compromise. When you stop negotiating with violent people, violence becomes the method of negotiation. When the talking stops, the bombing commences.
We'll learn this lesson *some* day I suppose.
I think about this every time I re-watch Executive Decisions lol, still a great action flick.
Agree and well said. That's why I'm for proposing e.g. to return Crimea to Ukraine, but lease the naval base to Putin.
Appeasement won't work with Putin because his goals are too big. He will *never* settle for renting out Sevastopol. This is about rebuilding the Russian Empire and nothing less. That's why I've said from the start that we should have gotten involved because this doesn't end with Ukraine. Some fights you don't just sit around and wait for until they hit your doorstep. Sometimes you have to kill the baby in the crib. That's Putin.
By comparison, Al Qaeda's demands were much easier to satisfy absent decades of violence and counter-violence. Essentially, all we had to do was split ties with the corrupt Saudi government and get our troops out of the near east. That wasn't a very fucking difficult finger for us to lift during the 90's or even after 9/11. We could have winded down our presence there *without acknowledging our doing so* while hunting Bin Laden and Al Qaeda the way Israel hunted Black September after the '72 Munich Olympics. This "fighting while negotiating" style is exactly what the Taliban did to us after Mike Pompeo signed the withdrawal agreement by the way. The Taliban kept killing the Afghan Army (while refraining from attacking US troops per their promises) while we were withdrawing forces a thousand at a time. This is how you advance goals on the battlefield *and* in the strategic space simultaneously. The Taliban worked the fuck out of us, and then they still got the cherry on top when ISIS-K did what they would have loved to do but couldn't because of the withdraw agreement when ISIS-K suicide bombed Abbey Gate and killed 13 service members--including women. I can imagine the Taliban laughing their asses off about ISIS-K accidentally giving them a great series finale episode to watch. American leaders (both political and military) couldn't see this fighting-while-negotiating approach coming which is exactly how they got suckered in and humiliated at the end.
The base would do only as a possible face-saver, if that might matter. I agree with you about Putin's over-arching ambitions. Regarding ISIS, I still remember where I was when I heard that they had created a caliphate: "Oh shit."