Robert,
I notice that you write that you interviewed and researched American officials and documents. This begs some important questions:
1. Did you speak to anyone on the "Islamic Right?"
2. If so, did you use a translator?
3. If you did, how can you be personally sure that you are receiving accurate translations of conversations? Were recordings translated by a second interpreter? 
4. More importantly, if you can't understand the languages, how can you be sure that some of the most basic research material - newspaper and television reports - haven't been, no matter how inadvertently, cherry-picked for you by your translators? Or that their importance has been properly gauged, at least from your own point of view?
I hasten to add that when dealing with, say, Europe, extensive language skills are assumed. And for such very good reasons no one bothers to make them explicit. I wonder why, if you don't have comparable language skills and background in Islam, I should consider seriously the ideas in your book.
I really this is an impolite post, but to continue in my blunt fashion, the level of knowledge required to claim expertise in Islam is so woefully low that it makes it all but impossible for those of us who are admitted amateurs to find genuinely accurate information.
I do not think it is possible to analyze with any sense of reliability the failures of US policy towards political Islam, or its successes, unless one is equally conversant with the persons and documents of Islamism. Admittedly, access to individuals may be difficult, but there is no reason to compound that limited access by not having the requisite language skills or background in the cultures.
Needless to say, if you do speak Arabic and some other languages, I apologize profusely for the clear intent of these questions.

Regarding tristero's point, someone should commission a complementary study by Juan Cole or someone.

I am less skeptical on the translation question than tristero is. Translators have track records and are checkable, and even without any  Arabic materials at all, a study based purely on English-language literature could tell us a lot.

I am struck by your statement that "In the 1950s, the United States had an opportunity to side with the nationalists, and indeed many U.S. policymakers did suggest exactly that, as my book explains. But in the end, nationalists in the Third World were seen as wild cards who couldn't be counted on to join the global alliance against the USSR. Instead, by the end of the 1950s, rather than allying itself with the secular forces of progress in the Middle East and the Arab world, the United States found itself in league with Saudi Arabia's Islamist legions. Choosing Saudi Arabia over Nasser's Egypt was probably the single biggest mistake the United States has ever made in the Middle East."

The "marriage of convenience" with Saudi Arabia happened aboard the USS Quincy in 1945. FDR committed the full might of the US to protect and defend the Saud Family who, in return, agreed to supply us with access to "cheap" oil.

Just because you are taking a "journalists view" doesn't mean you can ignore history. There was no way that 1950s policymakers could have chosen Nasser's Egypt over Saudi Arabia. 

Things were a bit more complicated than that, weren't they? After all, the U.S. called off the attack on Egypt in 1956. And the CIA liason in Egypt, Miles Copeland, quite liked Nassar. And when the U.S. and Nasser felt they had a common interest -- for instance, overthrowing Kassim in Iraq -- they cooperated. I believe a young Saddam Hussein hid out in Egypt during Qassim's brief reign, and helped the CIA led overthrow of the man.

hard-core activists and organizations ... were often viewed as allies for two reasons, because they were seen a fierce anti-communists and because they opposed secular nationalists such as Egypt's Gamal Abdel Nasser and Iran's Mohammed Mossadegh.

... in the end, nationalists in the Third World were seen as wild cards who couldn't be counted on to join the global alliance against the USSR.

Radical Islam is represented along its spectrum by Shiites such as Ayatollah Khomeini and Sunnis such as Osama bin Laden. And yes, it's wrong to lump them all together. However, as my book shows, they have often inspired each other and often cooperated. In fact, Khomeini's godfather and mentor, Ayatollah Kashani, helped found an Iranian organization called the Devotees of Islam in the 1940s that was an unofficial branch of the (mostly Sunni) Muslim Brotherhood. And it was the Brotherhood which begat bin Laden: Hassan al-Banna, its founder, begat Said Ramadan, his son-in-law. Ramadan founded the international organizing chapter of the Brotherhood in Geneva, where he set up the Islamic Center of Geneva, and where he worked closely with the CIA. Ramadan, in turn, helped inspire Sayyid Qutb, an Egyptian fanatic who was the inspirational force behind Islamic Jihad and Ayman al-Zawahiri, who joined bin Laden in the 1980s. And Ramadan not only cheered on the Islamic revolution in Iran, and worked with Khomeini's intelligence service, but he helped to recruit "Arab Afghans" for the CIA-backed Afghan jihad in the 1980s.

"Choosing Saudi Arabia over Nasser's Egypt was probably the single biggest mistake the United States has ever made in the Middle East."

Huh?

What would an alliance between Nasser and the US have looked like?  Nasser did not believe there should be any part of Palestine under Jewish rule.  Aside than the relative levels of hostility to Israel Egypt had no fundamental dispute with Jordan or Saudi Arabia for the US to even take a side.

You can say choosing the side less openly hostile to Israel was a mistake, but that "mistake" is a fundamental component of what the United States stands for. (Rightly or wrongly.)

A second big mistake that emerges in Devil's Game occurred in the 1970s, when, at the height of the Cold War and the struggle for control of the Middle East, the United States either supported or acquiesced in the rapid growth of Islamic right in countries from Egypt to Afghanistan. In Egypt, Anwar Sadat brought the Muslim Brotherhood back to Egypt. In Syria, the United States, Israel, and Jordan supported the Muslim Brotherhood in a civil war against Syria. And, as described in a groundbreaking chapter in Devil's Game, Israel quietly backed Ahmed Yassin and the Muslim Brotherhood in the West Bank and Gaza, leading to the establishment of Hamas.

As before, was there really a better alternative? If the states had been ruled by hostile Islamists wouldn't we now be reading about how Nationalists were supported, supposedly a mistake?

In Arab countries essentially the entire population is opposed to the idea of Arab Muslims being forced to permanently leave their homes to make way for a Jewish majority nation. Among populations such as this, if there is going to be conflict it will be between two sides that both oppose Israel.

Arab Nationalists and Arab Islamists see themselves as different and they are different.  But either group upon consolidating power will appear identical to westerners who are concerned with the level of hostility to Israel.  In either case, the west would prefer civil war to one side being in stable control because whichever side is in stable control will have, from a western perspective, the same foreign policy. 

The correct western strategy has never been to choose a winner.  The correct strategy has been to make sure the fight continues. It is just not possible to actually pick a side that agrees with the West about Israel.

  <span>What I’m doing today is doing what I’m doing now: I’m educating a new generation in the CIA that the Muslim Brotherhood was a fascist organization that was hired by Western Intelligence that evolved over time into what we today know as al Qaeda.
</span&gt<span> 
</span&gt<span>Yom Ha Shoah Speech
</span&gt<span>By John Loftus, 2004

</span&gt<span>(</span&gt<span>As a former Justice Department prosecutor, John Loftus once held some of the highest security clearances in the world, with special access to NATO Cosmic, CIA codeword, and Top Secret Nuclear files. As a private attorney, he works without charge to help hundreds of intelligence agents obtain lawful permission to declassify and publish the hidden secrets of our times. He is the author of four history books, three of which have been made into films, two were international best sellers, and one was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.)</span&gt<span>
</span&gt<span> </span&gt<span>
</span&gt<span>It always seems a little strange to have an Irish-Catholic talking about Yom Ha Shoah.

I had an unusual education in the Holocaust. When I was working for the Attorney General, I was assigned to do the classified research about the Holocaust, so I went underground to a little town called Suitland, Maryland, right outside Washington, D.C. and that’s where the US Government buries its secrets - - literally. There are twenty vaults underground and each vault is one acre in size. Anyone see the movie "Raiders of the Lost Ark"? The last scene of that movie is what the underground vaults are really like, only not as organized as they are in the movie. And in those underground vaults I discovered something horrible. I learned that many of the Nazis that I had been assigned to prosecute were on the CIA payroll, but the CIA didn’t know they were Nazis because the British Intelligence Service had lied to them. What the British Intelligence Service didn’t know was that their liar was Kim Philby, the Soviet communist double agent - - a little scandal of the Cold War. But our State Department swept it all under the rug and allowed the Nazis to stay in </span&gt<span>America</span&gt<span> until I was stupid enough to go public with it.

What do you do when you want to go public with a story like this one? You call up 60 minutes. We had a great time. Mike Wallace gave me 30 minutes on his show. For a long time, it was the longest segment that 60 minutes ever did. When the episode about Nazis in </span&gt<span>America</span&gt<span> went on the air back in 1982, it caused a minor national uproar. Congress demanded hearings, Mike Wallace got the Emmy award, and my family got the death threats. It was a great trip.

Then a funny thing happened. Over the last 25 years, every retired spy in the </span&gt<span>U.S.</span&gt<span> and </span&gt<span>Canada</span&gt<span> and </span&gt<span>England</span&gt<span> all wanted me to be their lawyer, for free of course. So I had 500 clients, they paid me $1 apiece. So I am the worst paid lawyer in </span&gt<span>America</span&gt<span>, but among the better employed.

Let me give you an example. This year a friend of mine from the CIA, named Bob Baer wrote a very good book about </span&gt<span>Saudi Arabia</span&gt<span> and terrorism, it’s called "Sleeping with the Devil". I read the book and I got about a third of the way through and I stopped. Bob was writing how when he worked for the CIA how bad the files were. He said, for example, the files for the Muslim Brotherhood were almost nothing. There were just a few newspaper clippings. I called Bob up and said, "Bob, that’s wrong. The CIA has enormous files on the Muslim Brotherhood, volumes of them. I know because I read them a quarter of a century ago." He said, "What do you mean?" Here’s how you can find all of the missing secrets about the Muslim Brotherhood -- and you can do this too. I said, "Bob, go to your computer and type in two words into the search part. Type the word "Vanna," V-a-n-n-a. He said, "Yeah." Type in "Nazi." Bob typed the two words in, and out came 30 to 40 articles from around the world. He read them and called me back and said, "Oh my God, what have we done?"

What I’m doing today is doing what I’m doing now: I’m educating a new generation in the CIA that the Muslim Brotherhood was a fascist organization that was hired by Western Intelligence that evolved over time into what we today know as al Qaeda.

Here’s how the story began. In the 1920’s there was a young Egyptian named al Bana. And al Bana formed this nationalist group called the Muslim Brotherhood. Al Bana was a devout admirer of Adolph Hitler and wrote to him frequently. So persistent was he in his admiration of the new Nazi Party that in the 1930’s, al Bana and the Muslim Brotherhood became a secret arm of Nazi Intelligence. The Arab Nazis had much in common with the new Nazi doctrines. They hated Jews; they hated democracy; and they hated the Western culture. It became the official policy of the Third Reich to secretly develop the Muslim Brotherhood as the fifth Parliament, an army inside </span&gt<span>Egypt</span&gt<span>.

When war broke out, the Muslim Brotherhood promised in writing that they would rise up and help General Rommell and make sure that no English or American soldier was left alive in </span&gt<span>Cairo</span&gt<span> or </span&gt<span>Alexandria</span&gt<span>.

The Muslim Brotherhood began to expand in scope and influence during World War II. They even had a Palestinian section headed by the grand Mufti of Jerusalem, one of the great bigots of all time. Here, too, was a man - - The grand Mufti of Jerusalem was the Muslim Brotherhood representative for </span&gt<span>Palestine</span&gt<span>. These were undoubtedly Arab Nazis. The Grand Mufti, for example, went to </span&gt<span>Germany</span&gt<span> during the war and helped recruit an international SS division of Arab Nazis. They based it in Croatia and called it the "Handjar" Muslim Division, but it was to become the core of Hitler’s new army of Arab fascists that would conquer the Arab peninsula from then on to Africa - - grand dreams.

At the end of World War II, the Muslim Brotherhood was wanted for war crimes. Their German intelligence handlers were captured in </span&gt<span>Cairo</span&gt<span>. The whole net was rolled up by the British Secret Service. Then a horrible thing happened. Instead of prosecuting the Nazis - - the Muslim Brotherhood - - the British government hired them.

They brought all the fugitive Nazi war criminals of Arab and Muslim descent into </span&gt<span>Egypt</span&gt<span>, and for three years they were trained on a special mission. The British Secret Service wanted to use the fascists of the Muslim Brotherhood to strike down the infant state of </span&gt<span>Israel</span&gt<span> in 1948. Only a few people in the Mossad know this, but many of the members of the Arab Armies and terrorist groups that tried to strangle the infant State of Israel were the Arab Nazis of the Muslim Brotherhood.

</span&gt<span>Britain</span&gt<span> was not alone. The French Intelligence service cooperated by releasing the Grand Mufti and smuggling him to </span&gt<span>Egypt</span&gt<span>, so all of the Arab Nazis came together. So, from 1945 to 1948, the British Secret Service protected every Arab Nazi they could, but they failed to quash the State of Israel. What the British did then, they sold the Arab Nazis to the predecessor of what became the CIA. It may sound stupid; it may sound evil, but it did happen. The idea was that we were going to use the Arab Nazis in the </span&gt<span>Middle East</span&gt<span> as a counterweight to the Arab communists. Just as the </span&gt<span>Soviet Union</span&gt<span> was funding Arab communists, we would fund the Arab Nazis to fight against. And lots of secret classes took place. We kept the Muslim Brotherhood on our payroll.

But the Egyptians became nervous. </span&gt<span>Nasser</span&gt<span> ordered all of the Muslim Brotherhood out of </span&gt<span>Egypt</span&gt<span> or be imprisoned, and we would execute them all. During the 1950’s, the CIA evacuated the Nazis of the Muslim Brotherhood to </span&gt<span>Saudi Arabia</span&gt<span>. Now when they arrived in </span&gt<span>Saudi Arabia</span&gt<span>, some of the leading lights of the Muslim Brotherhood like Azzam, became the teachers in the Madrasas, the religious schools. And there they combined the doctrines of Nazism with this weird Islamic cult, Wahhabiism. Everyone thinks that Islam is this fanatical religion, but it is not. They think that Islam - - the Saudi version of Islam - -is typical, but it’s not. The Wahhabi cult was condemned as a heresy more than 60 times by the Muslim nations. But when the Saudis got wealthy, they bought a lot of silence. This is a very harsh cult. The Wahhabiism was only practiced by two nations, the Taliban and </span&gt<span>Saudi Arabia</span&gt<span>. That’s how extreme it is. It really has nothing to do with Islam. Islam is a very peaceful and tolerant religion. It has always had good relationships with the Jews for the first thousand years of its existence.

For the Saudis, there was a ruler in charge of </span&gt<span>Saudi Arabia</span&gt<span>, and they were the new home of the Muslim Brotherhood, and fascism and extremism were mingled in these schools. And there was a young student who paid attention - - and Azzam’s student was named Osama Bin Ladin. Osama Bin Ladin was taught by the Nazis of the Muslim Brotherhood who had emigrated to </span&gt<span>Saudi Arabia</span&gt<span>.

In 1979 the CIA decided to take the Arab Nazis out of cold storage. The Russians had invaded </span&gt<span>Afghanistan</span&gt<span>, so we told the Saudis that we would fund them if they would bring all of the Arab Nazis together and ship them off to </span&gt<span>Afghanistan</span&gt<span> to fight the Russians. We had to rename them. We couldn’t call them the Muslim Brotherhood because that was too sensitive a name. Its Nazi cast was too known. So we called them the Maktab al Khidimat il Mujahideen, the MAK. And the CIA lied to Congress and said they didn’t know who was on the payroll in </span&gt<span>Afghanistan</span&gt<span>, except the Saudis. But it was not true. A small section CIA knew perfectly well that we had once again hired the Arab Nazis and that we were using them to fight our secret wars.

Azzam and his assistant, Osama Bin Ladin, rose to some prominence from 1979 to ’89, and they won the war. They drove the Russians out of </span&gt<span>Afghanistan</span&gt<span>. Our CIA said, "We won, let’s go home!" and we left this army of Arab fascists in the field of </span&gt<span>Afghanistan</span&gt<span>.

Saudis didn’t want to come back. Saudis started paying bribes to Osama Bin Ladin and his followers to stay out of </span&gt<span>Saudi Arabia</span&gt<span>. Now the MAK split in half. Azzam was mysteriously assassinated apparently by Osama Bin Ladin himself. The radical group - - the most radical of the merge of the Arab fascists and religious extremists - - Osama called that al Qaeda. But to this day there are branches of the Muslim Brotherhood all through al Qaeda. Osama Bin Ladin’s second in command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, came from the Egyptian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, the results of a Palestinian Islamic Jihad. There are many flavors and branches, but they are all Muslim Brotherhoods. There is one in </span&gt<span>Israel</span&gt<span>. The organization you know as "Hammas" is actually a secret chapter of the Muslim Brotherhood. When </span&gt<span>Israel</span&gt<span> assassinated Sheik Yassin a month ago, the Muslim Brotherhood published his obituary in a </span&gt<span>Cairo</span&gt<span> newspaper in Arabic and revealed that he was actually the secret leader of the Muslim Brotherhood in </span&gt<span>Gaza</span&gt<span>. So the Muslim Brotherhood became this poison that spread throughout the </span&gt<span>Middle East</span&gt<span> and on 911, it began to spread around the world.

I know this sounds like some sort of a sick fantasy, but go to your computer and type in the words "Vanna," V-a-n-n-a and the word "Nazi," N-a-z-i, and you will see all of the articles come up. Those are all the pieces of information that the CIA was trying to hide from its employees. It did not want them to know the awful past.

So, in 1984, when I was exposing European Nazis on the CIA payroll, at the same time they were trying to hide from Congress the fact that they had Arab Nazis back on the payroll to fight the Russians - - a stupid and corrupt program.

So, when Bob Baer studied his files, he was just stunned. A whole generation: the current CIA people know nothing about this. And believe me, the current generation CIA are good and decent Americans and I like them a lot. They’re trying to do a good job, but part of their problem is their files have been shredded. All of these secrets have to come out.

So, of course, my clients in the intelligence community said, "Well, what are you doing?" They gave me an example. They said, "Here’s how the Saudis finance these groups. The Saudis have established a group of charities on a street in </span&gt<span>Virginia</span&gt<span>. It’s </span&gt<address><span>555 Grove St.</span&gt<span>, </span&gt<span>Herndon</span&gt<span>, </span&gt<span>Virginia</span&gt</address&gt<span>." So I said, "OK the Saudis are terrorists, so what?" These charities fund Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, Hezbollah, al Qaeda. The Saudis are getting tax deductions for terrorism. They have set up front groups so all the terrorists groups in the </span&gt<span>U.S.</span&gt<span> and the front groups get the Saudi money as a charitable donation.

I said, "You’re kidding me." Nope. And they told me that right near where I lived in </span&gt<span>Tampa</span&gt<span>, </span&gt<span>Florida</span&gt<span> was one of the leading terrorists in the world. There were these two professors at the </span&gt<span>University</span&gt<span> of </span&gt<span>South Florida</span&gt<span>. One had just left - - and he was now in </span&gt<span>Syria</span&gt<span> - - and he was the world head of Islamic Jihad. His number two, the head of Islamic Jihad in the </span&gt<span>Western Hemisphere</span&gt<span>, was Dr. Sami al-Arian, who is still employed as a professor at the </span&gt<span>University</span&gt<span> of </span&gt<span>South Florida</span&gt<span>. You’ve got to be kidding. This can’t be true. Yes, these guys are raising money all across </span&gt<span>America</span&gt<span> and shipping it to </span&gt<span>Syria</span&gt<span> to go down to </span&gt<span>Palestine</span&gt<span>, the Palestinian areas, and hire suicide bombers to kill Jews.

They sent me the video tapes. There was Professor al-Arian on stage and one of his friends gets up and says, "Now, who will give me $500 to kill a Jew? There are people standing by in </span&gt<span>Jerusalem</span&gt<span> who will go out in the street and stab a Jew with a knife, but we need $500." And he said, "All of this money will go to the Islamic committee for </span&gt<span>Palestine</span&gt<span>." And that is the front group in the </span&gt<span>United States</span&gt<span> for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

So I had all my friends in the FBI and CIA send in these files. I said, "Why haven’t you prosecuted this guy? You’ve known about him since 1989." "We’d love to. We’ve tried to prosecute him but we were told we couldn’t touch him because he gets all of his money from the Saudis, and we are all under orders not to do anything to embarrass the Saudi government." I said, "I don’t mind embarrassing them."

You know what I did? I donated money to the charity that was the terrorist fund, because under </span&gt<span>Florida</span&gt<span> law, that gave me the right to sue the charity to find out where my money was going. It was hilarious. In early March, 2002, I drafted a long lawsuit exposing Professor Sami al-Arian, naming all the crimes he’d committed, all the bombings in Israel, the fundraising in America with terrorism. I mentioned how his money got to him from the Saudis and how the Saudis had convinced our government not to prosecute him for political reasons. Because of my high-level security clearances, everything I write is sort of classified material and has to be sent back to the government before publication, for censorship. So I sent my long lawsuit complaint to the CIA, and they loved it. They said, "Oh, great. We don’t like the Saudis either. Go sue them."

Three days later two FBI Agents showed up at my door, saying, "You know, there are only 21 people in the </span&gt<span>U.S.</span&gt<span> government that knew some of this information, and now you’re 22. How did you find out?" I said, "I’m sorry, I can’t tell you, attorney-client privilege." That’s why my clients pay me $1.00 each.

The day before I went to file the lawsuit, I got a frantic phone call from the United States Department of Justice. They said, "John, please don’t file the lawsuit tomorrow. We really are going to raid these Saudi charities. We’re going to close them down. Just give us more time." "Oh yeah, you’re going to raid them. That’s what you told me in January - - and again in February, and now it’s March. You want more time? I’ll give you until </span&gt<span>4:00 o’clock</span&gt<span> tomorrow. I’m filing my complaint at </span&gt<span>10:00 a.m.</span&gt<span>, so that at </span&gt<span>4:00 p.m.</span&gt<span>, I’m going to release the address of the Saudi charities. Back tomorrow. I filed my lawsuit at </span&gt<span>10:00 o’clock</span&gt<span>, and told the press I was going to hold something back for a little bit. At </span&gt<span>10:15</span&gt<span>, the U.S. Government launched Operation Greenquest, a massive raid on all the Saudi charities in homes and businesses, and in one hour we shut down the entire Saudi money- laundering network in </span&gt<span>America</span&gt<span>.

From </span&gt<span>March 20, 2002</span&gt<span> to the present, the government has found more and more evidence seized in those archives on that single raid that day. The evidence was so compelling that Professor al-Arian is no longer giving his speeches. He is now in federal prison awaiting trial. His accomplice, Hammoudeh, has also been indicted. Some 32 different people have been indicted in the </span&gt<span>United States</span&gt<span> as a direct result of these efforts.

But not the Saudis - - not the Saudis. A month after I filed my lawsuit against al-Arian, I did it: I caused some trouble. I invited some 40 of the top trial lawyers in </span&gt<span>America</span&gt<span> to come down to </span&gt<span>St. Petersburg</span&gt<span>, </span&gt<span>Florida</span&gt<span>. Boy, did I have a deal for them. I wanted them to put up millions of dollars of their own money - I’m poor, I had no money to give them - - but I wanted to do something for </span&gt<span>America</span&gt<span>. These are lawyers like Ron Motley that had won billions of dollars in their lawsuits against the tobacco industry and the asbestos industry. I said, "What I want you to do is look at the evidence I’ve collected. It’s the same Saudi banks and charities that funded Sami al-Arian that also funded al Qaeda." I said, "I want you to bring a class action in Federal Court in </span&gt<span>Washington</span&gt<span> on behalf of everyone who died on Sept. 11th. I’m going to work for free and collect all the evidence, introduce you to the experts, provide all the exhibits and documents . . . and we have to do this for </span&gt<span>America</span&gt<span>." The lawyers studied all the documents I collected, and on </span&gt<span>August 15, 2002</span&gt<span>, they filed the largest class-action lawsuit in American history in the </span&gt<address><span>Federal District Court</span&gt</address&gt<span> in </span&gt<span>Washington</span&gt<span> </span&gt<span>D.C.</span&gt<span>, asking for one trillion dollars damages against the Saudis.

The lawsuit said essentially that all these Saudi banks had one thing in common. They were bribing Osama bin Ladin 300 million dollars a year to stay out of </span&gt<span>Saudi Arabia</span&gt<span> and go blow up someone else. Well, on 911, we found out we were someone else, and the Saudis had to pay for their negligence. So that lawsuit is coming along very well.

And more and more people in the CIA and FBI are sort of using me as a back channel to get our information. So, believe it or not, they’ve actually given me my own TV show now on Sunday mornings on FOX TV nationwide. I’m on at </span&gt<span>11:20</span&gt<span> eastern standard time. And ABC Radio has given me a national radio program, but I’m on at </span&gt<span>10:30</span&gt<span> at night and it’s past your bedtime.

What I’ve become in my old age is a teacher. Twenty-five years ago I was a lot younger, a lot thinner, but now every day I get 500 to 1,000 e-mails from honest men and women around the world from the intelligence community. And we have to end the evil in this world. We have to recognize that al Qaeda simply didn’t spring up on its own. The evil route was Nazism. The al Qaeda Doctrine is the same as the Arab Nazis held. They hated Jews, they hate democracy, and they hate Westerners for Western culture. Al Qaeda is nothing more than the religious __expression of Arab Fascism. We allowed this branch of the Nazi trunk to survive, to flourish, and it has come back to haunt us.</span&gt

Yeah, in the short term, that may seem like a correct strategy. And as a means of maintaining a favorable balance of power it still might be. But in terms of stopping Islamic radicalism and terrorism, it is clearly not a good strategy. What, ultimately, is and should be the US's objective?

Zionista and also other pro-Israel posters and especially readers who are not interested either way in that flame war:

I want to apologize for my contribution to turning this into a general pro v anti Zionism flame war.

My point was not that the Arabs are right.  I think the Arabs are right and I have argued it before and will again, but not here any more.  That is not the point I was trying to make here though I was unfortunately sidetracked in my last comment.

My point is that an anti-Zionist position is mainstream in all Arab countries so the US does not have the choice of backing a mainstream indigenous pro-Zionist side in intra-Arab disputes.

That option did not exist and doesn't really exist now.

So the options have been to either back a side that if it grows will produce "blowback" or to allow whatever side is ahead to create more cohesive and powerful anti-Zionist states - which is a bigger form of blowback.

Fundamentally, when you support a country that is rejected by every other country in the region you have to play blowback management.  There really is no other choice.