Let the peace talks continue

By now it's a familiar and predictable cycle, only this time it happened in Spain.

First, a government announces it will engage in peace talks with a group that believes terror and violence are acceptable means for advancing its cause.

Then, elements in the terrorist group decide they want to derail the talks, so they go blow something up and kill or injure innocents.

And, sure enough, the government involved calls off the talks, naming the terror attack as the reason.

No one blames the Spanish government for calling off the talks. Once it was reported that ETA was blamed for the attack on Madrid airport that killed two men who were sleeping in their car while waiting for relatives to arrive by plane, it was a sure bet that the government's response would be to call off the talks. That's the way these things are done. Politically, announcing the break off was a no-brainer.

But if the goal is peace, the government in this case needs to continue contact with ETA on some level, in spite of the terrorist attack. A message needs to be sent to the terrorists that they do not get to decide when peace talks occur and when they do not. They cannot just push a button on a detonator every time they decide that peace talks should be halted.

To neutralize the terrorists' power, Spain needs to continue talking peace with ETA.

This may be a politically unpopular move that will require astute leadership. But astute leadership is exactly what is expected of leaders.