Close, Bill... but not exactly.

NYTimes today...
-Mr. Greenspan, of course, had been the ultimate Washington insider for years, and knew full well that politicians cited his words selectively to suit their agendas. He was also legendary for ducking delicate issues by, as he once said, "mumbling with great incoherence."-

There are two things of great importance to America in the Middle East...

Oil... and Isreal.

Both are central to the US economy.

Oil will inevitably follow the narrow chasms of economic causality... before, during, and after the wars that are fought over who controls it.

Isreal, on the other hand... is subjected to vastly different circumstances, than say, your average commodity, or the exchange currency in which it is dealt.

Since the nation of Isreal was created rather recently by Western interjection... Insuring that Isreal and her neighbors shall live in peaceful and mutual prosperity is the responsibility of the western world at large... and this, I believe, is the crux of the modern Middle East's terrible incitefulness.

If war was ever the answer to the middle east's problems, why hasn't peace ever lasted there?

I suppose it's time to do our best to heal the relations throughout the Middle East... and it's my contention that a true world-wide coalition could be easily gathered and fruitfully dispatched so as to facilitate mutual growth and well being amongst Isreal and her neighbors... and thereby... make the world a great deal safer.

Good solid self-realized infrustructures in prosperous self-guided republics (do I mean democracies?) that concern themselves about benefitting the well-being of their neighbors... these are the best and longest lasting threats to terrorism ever devised.
ttr