maybe the Administration has tried to use that criticism & has worked out a larger plan...
I think this is exactly what we are seeing, and if it works, it will be one of the most impressive alterations of world course known to history. Even if it doesn't, it's certainly worth the effort.
One of the problems with Islam is that secular society really has no place in it, despite the attempts of people like the author of this article, Avicenna and other Islamic thinkers to find or create one. Islamic fundamentalists have both literature and tradition on their side.
We should remember that Judaism also had little space for the purely secular (although more than Islam) until the Romans established what was essentially a secular state in Jewish territory. Relgious authorities lost much of their power over society as a whole. With the destruction of the Temple, the division between state and religion became a fact of Jewish life, although there is still tension in Israel between those who would make it a more religiously dominated state and those who tend towards secularism. However, because Judaism is not a proselytizing religion, this has little effect on people other than Jews.
Christianity, which developed at this period, has always made a clear distinction between the state and the church, between religious authorities and secular authorities. Granted, there have been times when this distinction has been forgotten by one side or the other, but in the case of Christianity, both scripture and tradition affirm it, and thinkers can find support in them. Even when the distinction has been lost because of the ambitions of princes or of clergy, it has always been possible to restore it, because it is a fundamental part of Christianity.
I'm not sure what it's going to take to make Islam respect this distinction. The fact that Islam is a violently proselytizing religion, of course, makes this dangerous on a world-wide scope. I hope Bush's plan to bring a new version of the Pax Romana to the Muslim world, one which would rely heavily on economic pressure rather than pure military pressure, will succeed. Otherwise, it's only going to end with open warfare as Islam continues to attack the rest of the world and attempt to impose itself all over the globe.