Nigeria, May 18 -- Contrary to the propaganda of moral upstarts, terrorism pays. It proves rewarding. It establishes states and reconstitutes others. It encourages change, for ill or otherwise. The stance taken, righteously pitiful, on not negotiating with those who practise it, is as faulty as battling gravity. The case of Syria's interim president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, is a brilliant example of this. While seen as a new broom that did away with the government of President Bashar al-Assad in such stunning fashion, al-Sharaa's bristles remain blood speckled.

a meeting lasting 37 minutes in Riyadhwith a US President holding hands in communal machismo with a bearded Jihadi warrior who once had a $10 million bounty on his head. Present was the ...