Well said, Be#. Recent reading has caused me to understand the extent of the destruction of Egypt's economy. This is not the Egypt of even twenty years ago, which would have been about the last time I looked. According to last Sunday's NY Times, lawyers and engineers and a quite broad base of educated people are working for $30.00 to $100.00 per month and working additional menial jobs to meet basic needs. Somewhere close to half of the population is under twenty five. Just one small piece of a much more complicated puzzle, I realize.

According to the same source, working poor of Pakistan send tens of thousands of their kids for strict Koranic learning, in facilities where they are indoctrinated with ideas that Jews knocked down the WTC to make Muslims get a bad rap, and that the Hindus are no worse than the Jews. (The article was pretty good and identifying people who were willing to acknowledge such beliefs and teachings.)

A constant source of amazement to me is realizing that but for the luck of birth geography, I would have been one of those ignorant hate filled ragamuffins. A blond one, admittedly, but otherwise exactly the same as the kids in the photographs.

I am also amazed at the ability of the U.S. federal government in running such an efficient military machine (disregarding the "cost" factor in efficiency; I guess effective was the word I was looking for, though people would criticize the hell out of that one as well), when in all other matters, domestic and foreign, one can expect to see sloth and inefficiency as the norm.

What a terrible mess. I want bin Laden and a thousand or ten of his closest associates "taken out" of the game, but, oh what a mess. (There are many who believe the Afghhani citizenry would not tolerate a multinational peacekeeping force, even if wholly comprised of Muslims.)