Fox News, ever on the lookout for ways to smear the Obama administration, predictably jumped all over Vice President Joseph Biden for having said recently, “The Taliban per se is not our enemy.” Biden was talking about opening negotiations with the Taliban. As the UK’s Daily Mail noted, “The vice-president said the militant Islamist group only represents an inherent threat if it allows Al-Qaeda to strike at the U.S.” But on the Hannity show’s Great American Panel segment Wednesday night (12/21/11), guest host Monica Crowley did her best to suggest that the Obama administration is getting too cozy with America’s enemies. Unfortunately for her, the three panelists - Fox News contributors all - supported Biden's remarks.

Crowley sneered, “The Vice President of the United States actually said, quote, ‘The Taliban per se is not our enemy.’” Calling on Bill Schulz, of Fox News’ “comedy show,” Red Eye, she said, “Bill, this is tailor-made for you. This statement is so Biden.”

Schulz agreed. But he also quickly added that he goes “back and forth” on this. He continued, “Fact of the matter is, unlike Al Qaeda, we negotiate with Taliban. We still kill ‘em sometimes, but we negotiate with them as well and we have for a long time.” He went on to describe them as “frenemies” or the Lindsay Lohan/Paris Hilton relationship of “that decrepit Third World area.”

Tucker Carlson wouldn't bite. “I’m rarely in agreement with Vice President Biden and the Taliban are loathsome… However, the point is protecting the United States and he went on to say that’s the point – is to keep the United States from being attacked by terrorists. And whatever it takes - and moral judgments - while interesting and useful in our personal lives – I’m not sure how much place they have in international affairs, actually.”

Crowley interrupted with an attempt to get the discussion more anti-Biden. “Here’s the issue, that this administration, they have been opposed to both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars… So they have been looking for every opportunity to get out… So what they’re doing here by talking to the Taliban and trying to get a political resolution to this, is just an excuse to get out. This is not about protecting the United States.”

Sorry, Mon. That didn’t work either.

“Well, why wouldn’t we want to get out?” Carlson asked. “I mean, isn’t the whole point to get out?” He laughed and said, “Staying there is not an aim in itself.”

Crowley, clearly flustered, said the objective was to “kill and destroy the enemy so they can’t attack us again.”

But Carlson interrupted to correct her. “No, no… The objective is to protect the United States. Period. That’s the only objective we’ve ever had. And whatever achieves that is worth it.”

Liberal panelist Leslie Marshall was no help to Crowley’s further anti-Biden remarks. So she finally turned back to Schulz again to ask, “What does that say about 10 years of our engagement, Bill, in Afghanistan, if we have identified the enemy as both Al Qaeda and the Taliban… All of the blood, all of the sacrifice on the ground in Afghanistan. We still have troops on the ground there, taking bullets from the Taliban, by the way… What does that say if we’re saying, ‘Well, OK, you know, we’re going to withdraw and, well, if Afghanistan goes back to the Taliban control… alright, that’s the way it is.’”

“It ain’t great,” Schulz acknowledged. But, he said, the Taliban has never left Afghanistan to attack the U.S. whereas Al Qaeda has “been decimated over there. So that you can look at as a victory.” He also said, “I’d rather negotiate with the Taliban than stay there five more years and get our heads blown up.”

So Crowley was left with no alternative but to attack the Obama administration for “defeatism in (Obama’s) foreign policy.”

But, unfortunately for her, the panel didn’t want to go there, either. So she concluded by saying, “Well, we’ve got to be very careful because history shows that these threats come home to roost right on the doorstep of the United States if we’re not careful.”