An excellent opinion piece by Diana West on the Big Picture, and why letting the Middle East continue to fester in repression and extremism became an untenable option on September 11, 2001: Fighting terror.

Will freedom spread to Iraq’s authoritarian neighbors? The recent collapse of an Arab summit on the subject has made me strangely hopeful. Organized as a response to the Bush administration’s call for Middle Eastern reform, the summit was canceled by host-country Tunisia because unnamed countries failed to support calls for “tolerance,””understanding“or ”democracy“ in a summit statement. That there was no such consensus is unfortunate; that there was even such a debate is promising.

Meanwhile, Iran’s bold students struggle on for freedom. Scholars in Alexandria have called for an elected legislature, an independent judiciary and a free press. Pro-reform demonstrators have marched through Damascus (before being arrested). A recent editorial titled ”Arab Reform Now“ in the Jerusalem Post summed up the situation this way: ”Among the conclusions the Bush administration drew from September 11 was that the risks of inaction outweighed the risks of action: that advocating stability above freedom in Middle East was counterproductive, hypocritical, and unworthy of the United States; and that reforming the Arab world was a sine qua non for defeating terrorism … The more forcefully the Bush administration [follows these conclusions], the more it will put repressive Arab regimes on the defensive, and the more courage it will give to the best elements in Arab society.”

It’s well worth the effort.