PAKISTAN'S NEW COALITION PROMISES TO NEGOTIATE WITH THE JIHADOTERRORISTS

APPEASEMENT.

AS IF THAT EVER WORKED.

NYTIMES/AFP:

Faced with a sharp escalation of suicide bombings in urban areas, the leaders of Pakistan’s new coalition government say they will negotiate with the militants believed to be orchestrating the attacks, and will use military force only as a last resort.

That talk has alarmed American officials, who fear it reflects a softening stance toward the militants just as President Pervez Musharraf has given the Bush administration a freer hand to strike at militants using pilotless Predator drones.

Many Pakistanis, however, are convinced that the surge in suicide bombings — 17 in the first 10 weeks of 2008 — is retaliation for three Predator strikes since the beginning of the year. The spike in attacks, combined with the crushing defeat of Mr. Musharraf’s party in February parliamentary elections, has brought demands for change in his American-backed policies.

Speaking in separate interviews, the leaders of Pakistan’s new government coalition — Asif Ali Zardari of the Pakistan Peoples Party and Nawaz Sharif, head of the Pakistan Muslim League-N — tried to strike a more independent stance from Washington and repackage the conflict in a more palatable way for Pakistanis.

They said they were determined to set a different course from that of President Musharraf, who has received generous military financial help of more than $10 billion from Washington for his support.

“We are dealing with our own people,” said Mr. Sharif, who was twice prime minister in the 1990s. “We will deal with them very sensibly. And when you have a problem in your own family, you don’t kill your own family. You sit and talk. After all, Britain also got the solution of the problem of Ireland. So what’s the harm in conducting negotiations?”

WHAT'S THE HARM OF CONDUCTING NEGOTIATIONS WITH THE TALIBAN AND AL QAEDA!?!?

• THESE TWO GUYS - SHARIF AND ZARDARI -ARE CORRUPT FELLOW-TRAVELERS OF THE ENEMY.
• THEY'RE IN IT FOR THE MONEY, AND WOULD "BUY" SOME "PEACE."
• THEY'LL GET AS MUCH PEACE AS CHAMBERLAIN GOT.