<HTML>Robert -
I respect your pacificist position. It is a noble position and an admirable one. But, I'm afraid, I just don't think it's realistic. You can't calm naked violence on a huge scale with talk of spiritual awakening. They talked to Hitler, and looked what happened. If they talk to Bin Laden's group, not even a representative of a state but of a very particular worldview, it would legitimate that worldview and sanction its actions.
It is very important, in my view, to understand what Bin Laden stands for. He is no noble freedom fighter, opposing a repressive enemy. He is no Nelson Mandela. Rather, he is a religious fanatic who stands for the re-establishment of the 10th-century Caliphate throughout the Middle East. Is it any coincidence that the Taliban, the most oppressive theocractic regime around, are the ones harboring him? Hardly. Their agendas are very similar. And why does Bin Laden hate America? Because Americans, in his mind, defiled sacred Muslim soil with their infidel presence during the Gulf War, when American troops were preventing Bin Laden's homeland of Saudi Arabia from being overrun by Saddam Hussein. As one analyst put it, "These are people with 21st-century technology and 7th-century minds."
I'm afraid that religious intolerance and fanaticism is the other side of the spiritual coin. People who are doing God's work are not going to be willing to compromise, and if that work is flying planes into packed high-rise buildings, then so be it. It <i>is</i> God's work, after all.
I see no way you can possibly deal with people like that or bring them "into the fold" of your pacificist worldview. They are a threat to all of us and have to be dealt with with force. Holding a conference with them just won't do it.
Best,
Garrett</HTML>
