Should Blair have negotiated with Bigley's killers?

[Brighton Breezy]

The UN is dead. Like the United Nations before it.

Blair can not negotiate with active terrorists like Bigley's killers.

Lush is right, it encourages hostage taking. I am sure that Bigley's family would not want anyone else to have to go through what they are.

As far as Britain withdrawing from Iraq. I think its important that they stay and help fix the mess they have contributed to.

 

[Beach Hut]

The UN is dead. Like the United Nations before it.

Blair can not negotiate with active terrorists like Bigley's killers.

Lush is right, it encourages hostage taking. I am sure that Bigley's family would not want anyone else to have to go through what they are.

As far as Britain withdrawing from Iraq. I think its important that they stay and help fix the mess they have contributed to.

Two points I agree:

UN and fixing the mess

 

[Brighton Breezy]

I was for the war, but not because of oil, because of the persecution of innocent Iraqis. I do think it should have been handled better and that there are many ways that they could have ame themselves more popular with the local people which would have helped.

They should have sorted out what was going to happen after the war before they even went in.

BUT

Now we have helped make the mess, it our duty to try and sort it all out. If we leave now we are letting people down. Lets not kid ourselves, the UN will not be any better and is dead as an international force. When the coalition ignored the UN it made it defunct.

We need to see the job through now and then perhaps some lasting good will come of this mess.

 

[Lush]

Hand Bush's mess over to a legitimate body like the UN. The UN might have some chance of isolating Bigley's killers from the broad anti-occupation insurgency that most Iraqis support.

You think that the hostage takers and suicide bombers would come out dancing in the streets if the UN came in?

Hate is almost always IRRATIONAL.

 

[Lush]

Howvere I agree that if the Americans got out it would be helpful. The question is, does anyone else have the appetite to sort this mess out?

 

[London Irish]

You think that the hostage takers and suicide bombers would come out dancing in the streets if the UN came in?

Hate is almost always IRRATIONAL.

The trick is to win the broad mass of Iraqis over to a legitimate government. Britain and the US are too compromised to do that - only the UN can do that (The UN is not dead Richie, stop believing George Bush's rhetoric).

Once you have most Iraqis on your side, you can isolate the fanatics and the extremists pretty easily, including Bigley's murderers.

It's pretty simple.

But Bush and Blair won't give up Iraq to the UN, because that would mean reaching consensus with France, Germany, China and Russia, and it would also mean giving up the sole rights to economically exploit Iraq too.

This is what Bigley and British soldiers in Iraq are dieing for - Bush's meglomania and Halliburton's shareholders.

 

[clapham_gull]

I'm not defending the government, but its to think that negotiations weren't going on behind the scenes is wrong. The conservative government had meetings with the IRA durings the 1980s but publically denied doing do.

 

[NMH]

The UN is only ineffective because the US brushed them aside in favour of stomping on Saddam.
Approve or not, that is why the UN are effectively 'dead'.

To end hostility in that area, there will have to be some kind of international unity, and Bush obviously doesn't have a clue - never did - on how to complete what he started.