Al Qaeda and the Taliban are not interested in peaceful communication. They are solely interested in blaspheming the tenets of Islam to further their grip on those too weak to resist them. They care not for the poor, the powerless, the disadvantaged or the malnourished. They care not for civil discourse. They are not reasonable people.

We cannot, unfortunately, proactively address the root causes of poverty, totalitarianism, environmental destruction and human rights until we have removed the biggest obstacle to their remedy. They have committed mass murder and threaten civilized society with more. The time for polite dialogue is over. They have killed it.

There is no desire on our part to inflict pain and suffering on innocent Afghans and Pakistanis nor any other peoples held captive by totalitarian regimes that support murder squads. Nor is there any desire on our part to let the guilty go unpunished, so that they may cast a shadow of fear permanently over our hearts.

Freedom and peace have a price. If the price is not paid now, it will inexorably go up.

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