This is what we are fighting

The Middle East Media Research Institute provides English translations of Arabic media reports. It's a view in to the "other side", to see what the Arab elites are thinking, what's being reported "over there". This story is an interview with a Lebanese man who was kidnapped in Iraq and forced to watch the beheading of an Egyptian man. It's disgusting, but we need to read these periodically to remind ourselves of what it is that we are fighting.

MEMRI also carried this story which is a translation of an Al-Qa'ida Magazine article (that's right - they have a magazine) that discusses the slaughter of the Egyptian in these terms.

'Among Those Who Fell to that Happy Dagger were a Mighty Infidel Tyranny and an Idol Worshipped Instead of Allah'

"'May your hand be strengthened!' - so said all those who saw the video that showed the slaying of the Egyptian spy in service of the American army in Iraq - I mean all those of the true faith.

"You are wrong if you think that it was only the Egyptian spy who was slain. No, for among those who fell to that happy dagger were a mighty infidel tyranny and an idol who is worshipped instead of Allah; did you not see this as he was slain?!

"A spy has been slain, one spy among others, and the Jihad fighter [who slew him] has come closer to Allah by way of his [the spy's] blood. Yet what is the novelty in this lowly spy whose slaying we have seen these very days? The novelty, and we ask of Allah that there be more [like him], is that a spy has been slain, and this spy looked like an Arab, had an Arab name, and spoke Arabic! The novelty lies in the triumph of the faith in the one God and in the raising of the banner of 'There is no God but Allah' over and above all other allegiances, be they of ethnicity, language, identity, or nationality."

'Whosoever is the Enemy of Allah, We are His Enemy - Arab or Non-Arab, Near or Far - They are All the Same'

Do you really want to negotiate with these people?

Do you honestly believe they would listen?