[Izzy Dunne]

Can Western enlightenment and power, embedded in deep cynicism, still prevail over ignorance and self-inflicted pathology energized by fanaticism?

I think he's referring to the " ignorance and self-inflicted pathology energized by fanaticism" on the part of the "insurgents", but it's funny (nay, tragic) how well that description fits the modern Democratic party.

[drational]

Can Western enlightenment and power, embedded in deep cynicism, still prevail over ignorance and self-inflicted pathology energized by fanaticism?

Hopefully.
But I think it is fair to say that we are unprepared to do it.
Democracy and Freedom are antithetical to Islamic fundamentalism; Islamists believe that the only viable laws are those given by God; Secular democracy and governing based on anything but Sharia is Apostasy.

Forced conversion would require a lot more planning, money and killing than we have been able to muster thus far; Will it end Islamism? By asking Islamists to join a better way of living, we are asking them to abandon God and the teachings of Islam. The West certainly had it's Dark Ages; Rationalists were imprisoned and persecuted for challenging religious tradition and teaching; Galileo died in prison for suggesting that the Earth revolved around the Sun. The West escaped its ideological prison by the fall of fundamentalist thought hegemony.

Islamists are deeply connected to a supernatural philosophy alien to Western secularism. Personally, I don't think their escape can be imposed by force. "Democratizing" Arabia before the dominance of Islamic fundamentalism is eradicated or allowed to abate is a recipe for disaster- see Hamas, Palestine and Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt and an Afghan constitution (under our auspices) that makes Apostasy a Capital crime.

Its all well and good to say lets go over and kick some butt and establish democracy, but are we ready to be a persistent occupier of people who are fundamentally antagonistic to western ideals? How much will it cost my children and grandchildren to maintain "democracy" in the Middle East? The end of WWII in was accompanied by adandonment of irrational German racial ideals and belief in fascism; also by abandonment by the Japanese of imperialism; these were human ideals and hence fallible; do we really expect fundamentalist Muslims to abandon their religous teachings and accept Western-style democracy?