A must read piece from Fouad Ajami on what will be President Bush's legacy in the Middle East.A follow-up comment from The Belmont Club is also recommended reading.
My Comment: Seven years after 9-11, the Middle East is now awash with trillions of dollars, but none of it being directed to solving the problems that resulted with the U.S. and its coalition partners invading Afghanistan and Iraq.
This lack of balance, and the refusal of the Middle East to go all-out to confront the religious extremists in their own countries, does not make the future look bright for all of us. In my opinion .... President Bush did not cause the problems in the Middle East, nor will he solve them .... that is something that will take generations .... and even if.
President Bush's legacy will be the following: He made the U.S. Government, its citizens, and it's allies aware of the dangers of Islamic fundamentalism. We now acutely know that we have been experiencing a clash of civilizations for the past thousand years ... and that President Bush's decision to go into the lions den and confront the lion has not created the turmoil that we are all living through today ..... but a response to what has been the case since Muhammad left the desert.
As long as oil is the crucial ingredient for our economies, and as long as Islamic Jihadists continue to come from the Middle East to attack us, American forces will be in the Middle East for the next century.
This will cost the U.S. in treasure and blood, and will for a very very long time.
Will the American flag ever fly over Mecca as it does in Baghdad? I do not know the answer to that. I do know that if it ever does, something terrible will have occurred, and that all-out war is now the result.
President Bush has only bought us time.