Fostering the Rise of Militant Islam

This article, from today's New York Times (as reprinted in the International Herald Tribune), discusses how young people in Egypt are turning more and more to being devout Islamics. They are doing so, in large part, because there are are no suitable jobs for them.

Therein, I submit, lies the seeds of future catastrophe. It will not be a large stretch to radicalize them and convince them that the reason that they have no future is due to the corruption of the Mubarak regime. Since Egypt is a one-party state and Mubarak has ruthlessly suppressed all opposition, the only path of opposition left open will be that of the radical militants.

The same will probably happen in Pakistan, provided that the election tomorrow is, as is widely anticipated, "massively rigged" to give Musharraf a victory.

And yes, this will be laid at our feet. We support the dictators, but dictators do not last forever. When they fall, those who supported the dictators are blamed. You need only look to Iran to see how that has worked for us. Or, for that matter, pre-Castro Cuba.