Still True

http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=030306E

A good response to Fukayama.

"Such a policy of dictator promotion is as shortsighted now as it was in 2003, or as it was on September 10, 2001. Dictators are band-aids, loosely placed over a festering wound of Jihadist rage. Band-aids always fall off. Band-aids do not heal wounds. If we support the band-aids, we ally ourselves with the status quo that continues to promote Islamism as the only viable alternative to corrupt authoritarian rule."

We often forget that going through the UN, limited military engagement in the middle east, passive support of non-immenent threats, was all tested for a 20-year period, roughly 1981-2001. I do not think the results were good. That is way I favored and continue to favor a different approach - ie Iraq, because the middle east is a powder keg so long as the only dissent possible under authoritarian regimes is the jihadi one...