heollah expected the gont to collapse. it didn't. so what did they do next?hey launched a massive siin starting in december 06. again, eecng the cabinet to resign it did not. they then blockedhe lebanese parliantrom et they blocked an eleio of a lebanese president, all expecting people to blink. they didn't. ultimately, in may 2008, to counter cabinet decisionst saw asthreatening, hezbollah had to do what hasan nasrallah had sworn they wld never do which is turn its arms against the nese people, the ver people they claimed to be defending. hezbollased force tsser a right to vetony govnment decision against its interests while refusing any public accountability or oversight of it's a sad reaty but there are real political costs. e lebanese people have not forgotten the 2006 war, n the events of 2008 in may. if you measure how hezllah and especially its allies ha faired in elections at all levels, you see erosions and litations. erosion particularly in the political strength of hezbollah's primary christian ally and limitatns to the attractiveness of zbollah's

in terms of engaging with heollah, i mean just that. we talked to virtually everyone in lebanon, but we do n talk to hezbollah. and ihink weeare weakening our own hand by not talking to them. we do not know very much about them because we do not deal with them directly. we do not know with thei differences and divisions are. im sure they are ther we will learn more b talking to them and we might see some advantages that currently we are blind to. this is not a bush policy or an obama policy. it has been a consistent policy that we do not talk to terrorist groups or organizations. when i was in iraq we talked to anyone who would ttlk to us and we did not worry about labels. the influence we were ae to bring was a big help in winding down the insgency. i would like to see us be more creative n just in iraq but in lebanon and elsewhere in the rld. host: so you're ok with talking with the taliban. guest: i am ok with it. it does not mean confering recognition or anything else anymore than it meant talkkng with insurgent elements in barairaq