Stardate 20010926.2135 (On Screen): Jesse Jackson is a spooky man. Why does he always speak in the first-person-plural? He's been invited by the Taliban to head a peace delegation to Afghanistan. In response he says, a quote:
"We must weigh what this invitation means. We're not going to be precipitous. If we can do something to encourage them to dismantle those terrorist bases, to choose to hand over the suspects and release the Christians rather than engage in a long bloody war, we'll encourage them to do so." He
always does this; read any public statement by him and he always refers to himself with the plural pronoun. He's also more than a bit full of himself.
Let's be clear about something: Jackson is a private citizen. He has no more or less diplomatic power than I do. He is not part of the government and he doesn't represent the US. He has no right to make promises or to negotiate on our behalf. And in a circumstance like this, when a thousand delicate diplomatic points with fifty nations are hanging in the balance, the last thing that Secretary of State Colin Powell needs now is for Jackson to start meddling in the affair. If Jackson really wants to serve his country, the best thing he can do right now is to stay home and keep the hell out of it. Let the Taliban deal with Colin Powell; it's his job -- and unlike Jackson, Powell has a mandate from the citizens of the United States. Powell was approved for his job in a Senate hearing; Jackson's only qualification is that our enemy has asked for him -- and we do not generally let our enemies choose our diplomatic representatives. (discuss)
Update 20010927: It seems that the Taliban didn't actually initiate this: Jackson himself suggested it. Now I'm sure that we don't need him involved, anymore than we needed him involved 
talking to China about our spy plane.
