Rightly so. Talking is not the same as surrendering - nor, indeed, as negotiating. If terrorist groups do put their weapons to one side, Mr. [Jonathan Powell] continues, the imperative is to keep everyone in the room. This requires constant attention and engagement. Eventual success in Northern Ireland flowed from a strategy of "never letting the talking stop." There is a moral to be drawn here for the U.S. administration's stop-go efforts to broker peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

The most obvious expression of the mistake is the U.S. insistence that it is fighting a war on terror, attached as this phrase is to Mr. [George W. Bush]'s accompanying admonition that everyone must choose whether they are "for us or against us."

For one thing, the study finds, Muslims do not see the West as a single entity, let alone a single enemy. Nearly three-quarters of Egyptians, for example, say they have an unfavorable opinion of the U.S., yet only a fifth show the same antipathy towards France. Twothirds of Kuwaitis voice some hostility towards the U.S. The figure for Canada is 3 per per cent. The British are deemed "aggressive" by 45 per cent in Lebanon, but less than a tenth say the same about Germany or France.

International relations-US
Social criticism & satire
Radical groups