Submitted by Mitchell(United States), Feb 1, 2006 at 12:19
Getting something stable so EU, US, and Israel can sustain some PA salaries for a few months is the short-sighted and precisely WRONG action. That would encourage Islamic fundamentalist takeovers all over. As Daniel Pipes says, the problem, the BIG problem, is "militant Islam".
The right view and solution is to show the world, i.e. all other waiting in the wings oppressed Arab societies, that extremist religious takeover results in extreme poverty, hardship, and a totally failed society, so failed that they would not THINK of trying to emulate it. As commenter Douglas Boggs put it, only a democracy with "separation of mosque and state" can succeed.
Though this is now obviously true and needed in many places, including Iraq, I am saddened to acknowledge that President Bush, though he is strong on terror, is fundamentally (pun intended) on the wrong side of this crucial separation of church and state doctrine.
Perhaps some savvy reader can point out some flaw in these conclusions.
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