An excellent summary of recent history of the Near East. Suez was Eisenhower's biggest mistake: an attempt to "play fair" with people who have no concept of fairness, and only a very primitive notion of honor.
Of course, the Soviets were backing Nasser. Today, Putin is backing anyone who will hurt the US, so I guess things have not changed that much.
Frum is exactly right. Of course, it is too late to undo Eisenhower's folly, but we should at least try to learn from mistakes of the past. Bush is trying to do that, but with all the domestic anti-Americans around, and a traitorous opposition party, it is very difficult.
I must conclude that democracies such as ours don't really learn very well, particularly when they lack an effective educational system.
You touch on many very important aspects of the middle east.
In addition to a lack of honor and not having a concept of fairness, the middle eastern Muslims, mostly Arab, that I've dealt closely with in college and in my professional life, seem to lack an understanding of the concept of telling the truth, also. From my associations with Arabs it has become all too apparent that not only is it their belief that deceit is acceptable, but if you are good at it you will be held in high praise by your peers.
I completely agree with your assessment of the effectiveness of our public education system. I would go one step further to comment that it is precisely the lack of knowledge of history by the barking moonbat appeasement crowd that makes them completely oblivious to the folly of their argument.