The Grand Mosque in MeccaFrom Yahoo News/AFP:
WASHINGTON (AFP) – The appeal of Al-Qaeda-like terrorism is waning in the Middle East, but the region is beset by multiple problems that are likely to make it unstable for years to come, a senior US intelligence official said Tuesday.
Whether the more dire scenarios for the region materialize depends on what kind of leaders emerge and how they deal with the demands of a young, expanding and potentially alienated population, said Thomas Fingar, deputy director of national intelligence.
"The Middle East, really from the Mahgreb across into Central Asia, is one in which almost every problem that will challenge political leadership anywhere around the globe is to be found there, and many at a higher rate of severity or intensity," Fingar said.
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My Comment: Enormous oil wealth for just a few. Political corruption. Limited freedoms. Religious intolerance and extremism. A demographic explosion. .... Yup .... the Middle East is going to unstable for a long time.