Hm. No Negotiating With Terrorists, Huh?

US on bin Laden tape: No negotiations
By Deborah Zabarenko
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States dismissed on Thursday a conditional truce offered in a tape attributed to Osama bin Laden and said it "does not negotiate with terrorists."

Vice President Dick Cheney said the offer from the al Qaeda leader appeared to be a ploy but that it was too early to draw conclusions.

The audiotape, aired by Arab television station Al Jazeera, also warned al Qaeda was preparing new attacks inside the United States.

"Clearly the al Qaeda leaders and other terrorists are on the run, they're under a lot of pressure. We do not negotiate with terrorists, we put them out of business," White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters.

"The terrorists started this war and the president made it clear that we will end it at a time and place of our choosing. We continue to pursue all those who seek to do harm to the American people," he said.

Let's take a closer look at that, shall we?

Who can forget this chart-topper?

[Our goal] is to prevent regimes that sponsor terror from threatening America or our friends and allies with weapons of mass destruction. Some of these regimes have been pretty quiet since September the 11th. But we know their true nature. North Korea is a regime arming with missiles and weapons of mass destruction, while starving its citizens.
Iran aggressively pursues these weapons and exports terror, while an unelected few repress the Iranian people's hope for freedom.
Iraq continues to flaunt its hostility toward America and to support terror. The Iraqi regime has plotted to develop anthrax, and nerve gas, and nuclear weapons for over a decade. This is a regime that has already used poison gas to murder thousands of its own citizens -- leaving the bodies of mothers huddled over their dead children. This is a regime that agreed to international inspections -- then kicked out the inspectors. This is a regime that has something to hide from the civilized world.
States like these, and their terrorist allies, constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world. By seeking weapons of mass destruction, these regimes pose a grave and growing danger. They could provide these arms to terrorists, giving them the means to match their hatred. They could attack our allies or attempt to blackmail the United States. In any of these cases, the price of indifference would be catastrophic.

So Iran is identified as a terrorist state, if not THE terrorist state, and we don't negotiate with terrorists.

And yet....

"Negotiations remain the best option, as sanctions will muddy the waters," the China Daily said in an editorial, saying Iran must return to negotiations with the European Union.

The EU trio scrapped the talks last week after Iran removed IAEA seals on uranium enrichment equipment and resumed a suspended nuclear research program. U.S. and EU officials say there can be no more talks unless Tehran reverses these steps.

Right. No negotiations with terrorists. Ever. Those damned sanctimonius, law-abiding Republicans...

snarkasm, snarcasm, snarky