What if... Is it Worth the Risk?

Here is an interesting article at MSNBC. I’ve pasted a couple quotes that I find relevant. My accent in Bold.

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Michael Gerson
The View From the Top - A former Bush adviser on 9/11, Iraq and the lessons of five tumultuous years—for the president and the public.

From those events (9/11), President Bush drew a fixed conclusion: as long as the Middle East remains a bitter and backward mess, America will not be secure.

In the traditional diplomatic view, this chaos can be contained through the skillful management of "favorable" dictators. But what if the status quo in the Middle East that produced Muhammad Atta and his friends and successors cannot be contained, or boxed up, or bought off? What if the false and shallow stability of tyranny is actually producing people and movements that make the whole world less stable? And what if the problem is getting dramatically worse as the technology of weapons of mass destruction becomes more democratically distributed?

Every element of the Bush doctrine was directed toward a vision: a reformed Middle East that joins the world instead of resenting and assaulting it. (ed. In the end, is it not resentment that drives them?)

…the nation may be tired, but history doesn't care.

…presidential decisions on national security are not primarily made by the divination of public sentiments; they are made by the determination of national interests. (ed. This is the mistake made by Ehud Olmert. A tentative President can lose an opportunity that can take years and many lives to correct.)

…inaction might bring the harshest verdict of history: they knew much, and they did nothing.
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Ok, work calls. I’ll have to read the rest later. Hope you find this story interesting.