>But in the main I think Mark underestimates
>the power of the Admin and its allies to
>cope with OBL et al.
I'm coming around to thinking you may be right. Fisk et al are confident that the war will backfire on the U.S. - that the Arab/Muslim masses, unable to take it anymore, will explode and take down the Pakistani and Saudi regimes. Maybe. But haven't we heard similar things in the past? There were a lot of arguments like that in the Gulf War too. Very often, violent repression works. The U.S. sustains its imperial power in part by its willingness to commit extravagant excesses of violence. Someday it won't work, but it has plenty of times in the past.
Doug