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What has the West wrought?

"In fact, one of the most profound changes in the region these past three decades has been the growing unwillingness of Arabs to be afraid. Their leaders - our "moderate" pro-Western Arab leaders such as King Abdullah of Jordan and President Mubarak of Egypt - may be afraid. But their peoples are not. And once a people have lost their terror, they cannot be re-injected with fear. Thus Israel's consistent policy of smashing Arabs into submission no longer works. It is a policy whose bankruptcy the Americans are now discovering in Iraq.

And all across the Muslim world, "we" - the West, America, Israel - are fighting not nationalists but Islamists. And watching the martyrdom of Lebanon this week - its slaughtered children in Qana packed into plastic bags until the bags ran out and their corpses had to be wrapped in carpets - a terrible and daunting thought occurs to me, day by day. That there will be another 9/11."

It makes for frightening reading - and it's not from the pen of some rabid writer. It's from none other than Robert Fisk - doyen and veteran author and journalist based in Beirut for the last 30 years - writing in The Independent. It's rather interesting that whilst some over the last years have looked askance at Fisk's views his predictions and "take" on what is happening in the Middle East have, in many cases sadly, now come to fruition. And now more people are sitting up and "listening" to Fisk! Read his latest piece here.

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