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Capturing, and working with, the shifting ground

Especially interesting as it comes from a Jewish publication, Forward this week has a thought-provoking Editorial on how America, and the West, have to understand that the Islamic world is changing - and it ought to be "captured" and worked with before it's too late:

"A major shift is under way in the politics and power balance of the Islamic world, and it calls for a fundamental change in American and Western strategic thinking. Handled well, the shift holds out the possibility of a lasting thaw in the tensions that now dominate relations between the West and Islam. But if it is mishandled or ignored, the likely result will be a continuation of the current, dangerous spiral downward. Right now, it appears that our leaders — Republicans and Democrats alike — are missing the warning signs."

And:

"For all that, the fundamentalists’ upward trend could present America and the West with an opportunity if not to win, then to change the rules of the game. We could welcome the steps by Turkey and Jordan to open dialogues with radicals, rather than condemning them. We could make clear that we, too, would like to enter a dialogue if we knew something would come out of it. We could make peace the goal of the dialogue rather than a precondition.

With luck and skill, an embrace of the less hostile fundamentalists could put America back at the center of a broad coalition of friendly nations willing and eager to follow our lead, instead of the despised, crippled giant we have become over the past decade."

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