"If we can just talk to them, and make deals with them, they'll leave us be."
How that theory is working in Pakistan after the truce.
To tyrants and lunatics, submission, humility, and a deep aversion to violence are not signs of maturity and nuance in a nation and its leaders. They're signs that you're walking meat.
It might be understandable that people would have to re-learn this every generation, but it seems we have to re-learn it every few years.