The Mountaintop

But what was clear to the bold foreign policy strategists in Washington was that the status quo that existed before September 11 could no longer be tolerated. Much of the Muslim world represented decay and stagnation, and bred anger and resentment. That was the root cause of the terrorism that had attacked America with increasing ferocity between 1969 and 2001.
America’s critics craved stability in the Middle East. Don’t rock the boat, they said. But to the US this stability was that of the mass grave; the calm was the eerie quiet that precedes the detonation of the suicide bomb. The boat was holed and listing viciously.

It is so obvious that people everywhere would want a say in their own lives. Why would Muslims be any different? I've never understood why stability that is achieved by tyranny should be preferable to liberty, even when the latter can be accomplished only through disruption and uncertainty (and when was it ever reached otherwise?).

It's certainly true that if everything stayed the same in the Middle East we would know what to expect: more terrorists, more horror. And it's also true that we can't be sure what will ultimately result as the situation changes there. I just don't see how a new and different Middle East could possibly be worse than what we've faced up until now.

But in the end it's not going to be up to us. It's going to be Iraqis, Palestinians, Syrians, Iranians and everyone else who lives in that neighborhood who'll have to figure this out. Personally I'm betting on them, not on us, on them.