Judith Weiss provides an insightful and much-needed critique of Condolezza Rice's strategy for nation building vis a vis the palestinian Arabs.
Condi is putting the cart before the horse. The Soviet State didn't crumble because we tried to create a new Soviet state in the same location, with the same cast of characters, expecting to change their spots. It crumbled because we forced it to intensify its internal contradictions, tempting it into an accelerated arms race and continually showing its people the contrast between their lives and the ones they could have in a freer society.
That is the way to destroy jihadism, by not allowing it to expand its empire, not allowing it any military victories, starving it of legitimacy and financial support, until its internal contradictions force it to collapse, while at the same time demonstrating an alternative.
There's one crucial element missing here, though, when you compare palestinian Arabs to Soviet Russians or jihadism to international communism. Need I point out what that is?
