"George W. Bush is missed by activists in Cairo and elsewhere who—despite possible misgivings about his policies..."

I do admit to having a lean toward a realist policy of stability myself as part of addressing the challenges we face. It may also be a matter of trying play a delicate balancing game. I still do not feel that most of the Middle East has a sufficient middle class to support democratic governments without a severe danger of radical Islamic party candidates, like Hammas, getting power. The real problem is that many of these radical organizations do a far superior job of providing social services to the people in the countries than the government does. I think it is much better if Democracy is allowed to emerge slowly.

Now with Egypt, it is a sticky problem. If you push and get a higher level of democracy in Egypt, you are more likely to have a government that would likely be more aligned with Iran against Israel than what currently exists. On our other major problem in the region, I am beginning to wonder if it is possible to create a stable government in Afghanistan. It almost seems that part of the answer is to do away with the overwhelming idea of territorial preservation of state boundaries. Afghanistan may have to be chopped in half with one half sovereign and the other half as a new militarily occupied territory until it can be controlled. However, the nation-state as constituted in the current abstract boundaries is a difficult thing to deal with since Woodrow Wilson turned land and nation into an almost unlinkable function. With lacking the ability to re-map the Middle East, it would seem like working towards maintaining some kind of stability maybe the only workable method until we can get our own house in order.

Yes Raf, I have had some battles with the "eternally at war with Islam" crowd and I hate linking him up anywhere. I've even stopped giving Debka a pass as Totten refers to them as the World Net Daily of foreign affairs...no matter their being right on occasion as they were a few days ago being among the first to report a large naval force leaving today from the US for the Gulf.

So there is incredibly mixed signals we're sending as Russia says today they can sell Iran S-300s if they want. IS this their response for Obama providing $200 million for Israel's Iron Dome?

Blair resigned today, but you and I can probably imagine a few more that should go. I wonder if Obama and China agreed to both pass resolutions on Iran and NK as long as they were both watered down so much as to mean little. It is hard to sort the facts here.

As for Mohammad, Norris is apologizing, but I understand the point of the cartoons and Facebook buckled. I didn't hear much protest from Muslims however when Iran held a Holocaust cartoon day....

Oh, besides Spencer I meant that Democracy entails free speech and the link to Spencer showed the cartoons. Some advocates in the ME want Democracy, but that doesn't entail the protection of minorities and their right to free speech. The most well known and recently fired editor of the Saudi progressive Press apologized for questioning the core of Islamic belief (which he did during a defense of woman's rights).

The reductionism that distills what America and others are - the concept of Democracy, doesn't work. We are much more than that. Obama didn't really touch on that in his Cairo speech. A society can Democratically commit suicide I guess...

P.S. Raf, I think you will get a kick out of this. It is different... want change you can believe in?

Also a thread from Totten that has some of the latest news items from the ME: here