Brad D.says:
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(2) But Al Qaeda and the Taliban are now a problem in large part because of mistaken and misguided U.S. policies in the past, and because of the failures of modernization--democratization, industrialization, and secularization--in the Middle East.
(3) More important, even, than drawing Al-Qaeda's fangs (and getting a better government than the Taliban for Afghanistan, even acknowledging the Hobbesian point that any government is better than no government) is winning the peace: putting the Middle East on a track so that more Al-Qaeda's won't be hatched in the future and that the processes we think of as modernization--democratization, industrialization, and secularization--will roll forward successfully.
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CB: I'm thinking that from what I know of your thinking, you would have considered good U.S. policy the top priority given to stopping communism in the region. Wasn't that the policy that gave rise to an Al Qaeda and Taliban ? Do you really consider U.S. Cold War policy mistaken and misguided ?