[afraidfortherepublic]

In sympathy with the past administration, I think that a lot of us just couldn’t believe that there was a segment of the population (and it turns out to be a huge segment) who could plot and carry out such egregious acts. GWB and many others wanted to believe that there were honest Muslims out there who wanted to do the right thing. They just couldn’t believe that the “right” thing in the eyes of Al Awlaki was to kill us all.

[Paine in the Neck]

I happened to be reading David Pryce-Jones' The Closed Circle when 9/11 occured. I wish that GWB and his staff had read it before going into Iraq. A clearer understanding of the disfunction of arab society would have maybe saved us a lot of the ensuing troubles that resulted from a pollyanna-ish compulsion to 'nation build'.