OxBlog

Saturday, November 30, 2002

# Posted 1:27 PM by Ariel David Adesnik  

GOOD NEWS IN THE WAR ON TERROR: We don't often think of Colombia as a front in the war on terror, but its right-wing paramilitaries and leftist guerrillas are on the State Department's list of terrorist organizations. Thus, the paramilitaries unilateral declaration of a ceasefire is very good news. There isn't much good to say about the guerrillas except that they are not as bad as the paramilitaries.

The Times doesn't say much about the reasons behind the ceasefire, but I think it should've recognized the most important cause: the election of hard line conservative president Álvaro Uribe. Just as only Nixon could go to China, only Uribe could get concessions from the Colombian right. Does Uribe's success carry a message for the United States? Yes. That the most effective way of stopping Al Qaeda will be to have Muslim leaders disavow it. Imagine the effect on Arab public opinion if Iran's ayatollahs of the imams of Hamas declared Al Qaeda to be an evil, un-Islamic organization. Well, we can always hope.

UPDATE: The Postagrees with OxBlog.
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