…we’ve won no friends on the Arab street for supporting the likes of Egypt’s’s Mubarak, or for propping up one of the most corrupt regimes on earth in Afghanistan. And our fear that the only alternative to secular dictatorships may be radical, Islamist fascists may have actually helped the Islamist cause.

Thomas Friedman of The New York Times is a great writer and a profound thinker. He sees the world differently than I do, and there are times he drives me nuts. Then there are times when he makes me stop and think. And he’s done it again.

Surveying the situation in the Middle East, Friedman asks, “What [is the U.S.] doing spending $110 billion this year supporting corrupt and unpopular regimes in Afghanistan and Pakistan that are almost identical to the governments we’re applauding the Arab people for overthrowing?”

Friedman makes the case that U.S. foreign policy has seen only two possible alternatives in the Middle East: Bin Laden-and-Taliban style radical Islam on the one hand, or secular dictatorships on the other.

But are these the only possibilities for the Middle East?

The answer may very well be “No.” There may be a third way.

And that third way, while it may not be democracy as we know it, could be a system that gives the Arab people some representation in the formation of government. And that would be a boon not just for the people of the Middle East, but for the United States and the West as well.

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http://www.christianpost.com/news/a-lesser-of-two-evils-world-49510/