Washington Post: Paradoxically, Osama bin Laden -- if it really was Osama bin Laden -- may have

Washington Post: Paradoxically, Osama bin Laden -- if it really was Osama bin Laden -- may have done this country a favor by offering a "truce" with Europe on an audiotape played on Arab television networks last week. The voice on the tape, which the CIA said may belong to the Al-Qaida leader, offered not to attack "any country which does not carry out an onslaught against Muslims or interfere in their affairs." In effect, Osama bin Laden was putting into words a tactic that Al-Qaida and its affiliates have practiced but never articulated: the use of both rhetoric and violence in an attempt to separate America from its allies.
Most recently, this tactic has been used in Iraq, where suicide bombers and insurgents have targeted United Nations and non-American troops, as well as in Afghanistan, where the targets have included aid workers as well.
In Spain, a political party that had campaigned against the Spanish presence in Iraq won an unexpected electoral victory following railway bombings in March. Yet partly as a result of widespread accusations that its victory represented a victory for Al-Qaida, the Spanish government that was sworn in Saturday has gone out of its way to declare that Spain will never accept any "truce." "Bin Laden is the enemy of all of us who seek peace, democracy and freedom" is how the new Spanish foreign minister put it Thursday.
Explicit offer hurts
In fact, by making this offer explicit, Al-Qaida has also made it unacceptable. No senior European leaders will want to be seen openly negotiating a "separate peace" with terrorists, however tempting it may have been to distance themselves from America's war on terrorism when it was possible to do so quietly. Certainly neither the Germans nor the French could ever agree to withdraw from "all Muslim countries," even if there were something to be gained from doing so.
What this odd turn in al-Qaida's behavior does is create an opening for U.S. diplomacy, and the Bush administration should leap to take advantage of it.