Talk to the Bad Guys

After writing the previous entry ("America, Deaf and Dumb," 23 July 2006), I saw the following paragraph in an op-ed piece by John McLaughlin in The Washington Post. McLaughlin was deputy director of the CIA during the first Bush administration:

"...even superpowers have to talk to bad guys. The absence of a diplomatic relationship with Iran and the deterioration of the one with Syria -- two countries that bear enormous responsibility for the current crisis -- leave the United States with fewer options and levers than might otherwise have been the case. Distasteful as it might have been to have or to maintain open and normal relations with such states, the absence of such relations ensures that we will have more blind spots than we can afford and that we will have to deal through surrogates on issues of vital importance to the United States. We will have to get over the notion that talking to bad guys somehow rewards them or is a sign of weakness. As a superpower, we ought to be able to communicate in a way that signals our strength and self-confidence."

I would go a step further than McLaughlin: Not talking to bad guys weakens us. It reduces the number of options we have available because of the difficulties of communicating anything. Options are increased when you and your interlocuteur know what you both think is important. When your options are reduced, the chances that you will find a satisfactory resolution to a problem are reduced as well.