You have to understand who you're dealing with, in order to determine if negotiations are worthwhile. Why is the enemy fighting you? In the case of the IRA and the UK, the IRA fought for goals that could be reasonably accomodated. Territory and independence are compromisable. In the case of Al Qaeda, I'm under the impression that they won't back down untill the US is an Islamic theocracy much in the image of Iran or Taleban Afghanistan. That's not compromisable. Israel and Palestine are in a conflict of the sort that should in theory be negotiable - questions of independence and territory are theoretically easily solved. In short, some enemies are worthy of negotiation and compromise, and others are not, and even if compromise should be simple, it often isn't, once ego's get in the way of rational thinking.
