The Basics

Ian Shapiro, at Project Syndicate:

...Terrorist groups can be minimized if their enabling states are contained. Defenders of the Bush doctrine claim that this is impossible when they operate out of failed states that cannot police their borders. But, given that the Bush doctrine has compounded the failed-state problem, this is a bogus argument. However many failed states there were in the world before America invaded Iraq, there is one more now.

To build a containment regime against terrorism emanating from the Middle East, a date for America’s departure from Iraq must be set. There is no other way to reverse the widespread perception across the region that the US has imperial ambitions. The other essential step is to place resolution of the Israel-Palestine conflict at the center of America’s foreign policy agenda. America must push for a solution that can garner the support of significant majorities of all the peoples between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean. That is the surest means of protecting and promoting democracy.