Well here's Wikipedia's definition of politics:

Politics (from Greek πολιτικος, [politikós]: «citizen», «civilian»), is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to behavior within civil governments, but politics has been observed in other group interactions, including corporate, academic, and religious institutions. It consists of "social relations involving authority or power"and refers to the regulation of public affairs within a political unit, and to the methods and tactics used to formulate and apply policy.

No mention of "political parties" in that definition. But since this thread is a discusion about our government's policy/methods of dealing with terrorists, I agree with GG that it should be in the political forum.