Clarification/Follow-up by tomder55 on 05/17/04 12:42 pm:
"If the peoples of the Middle East continue on their present path, the suicide bomber may become a metaphor for the whole region, and there will be no escape from a downward spiral of hate and spite, rage and self-pity, poverty and oppression, culminating sooner or later in yet another alien domination; perhaps from a new Europe reverting to old ways, perhaps from a resurgent Russia, perhaps from some new, expanding superpower in the East. If they can abandon grievance and victimhood, settle their differences, and join their talents, energies, and resources in a common creative endeavor, then they can once again make the Middle East, in modern times as it was in antiquity and in the Middle Ages, a major center of civilization. For the time being, the choice is their own." 'What Went Wrong?'Bernard Lewis

Clarification/Follow-up by XCHOUX on 05/17/04 12:49 pm:
Thanks Tom, he is eloquent and right on. I enjoyed hearing him speak.

Clarification/Follow-up by tomder55 on 05/18/04 9:53 am:
another book I intend to read soon is :

'Endgame: The Blueprint for Victory in the War on Terror'
by Thomas McInerney, Paul E. Vallely(Tom McInerney and Paul Vallely are retired generals )