Truce with Terrorists?

Now, we hear of a truce deal offered by Bin Laden (and of course rejected by the US).  Well, at least we know he's still alive enough to be killed.   I was worried there for a minute that he might have just died in obscurity and we would never have the satisfaction of capturing of killing him.  In the end, he is the reason we are here.

            It is the policy of the United States that we do not negotiate with terrorists.  Clearly that is the only way to deal with them.   Once you begin to negotiate, you only encourage more terrorism.  However, if Bin Laden was the king or president of an actual country, then we could negotiate a cease-fire with him – assuming that he actually had a country to be at war with.   Sometimes it seems that the only difference between a terrorist like Bin Laden and a non-terrorist country, like Iran, is that the ruler of Iran has land and somehow that gives him credibility (and something take away, I suppose).   Bin Laden has nothing, so he's a terrorist.