Negotiating with al-Qaeda?

The Scotsman reports that Sir Hugh Orde, the head of the Police Service of Northern Ireland, thinks that we should negotiate with al-Qaeda. He may have a wealth of experience in dealing with the IRA, but he clearly has no understanding of fundamental nature of al-Qaeda's quarrel with the western world. All these inane statements do is legitimise the malefic force of militant Islam and generate an ominous sense of political entitlement.