Funny this doesn’t sound much different from what David Makovsky of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy said on PBS’ News Hour on Tuesday

Funny this doesn’t sound much different from what David Makovsky of the Washington Institute for Near

East Policy said on PBS’ News Hour on Tuesday:

…This is a very contested point that General Petraeus raised today, because, look …nobody serious

believes that, if you solve this conflict, it is an open sesame, and it unlocks all the other or any

conflicts in the Middle East… Where our disagreement is whether this will fundamentally make a

difference in the way America is perceived. I mean, we all would agree, I would think, that, you know,

if people are shooting at America in Iraq or Afghanistan, it’s because of that local conflict…

[Extremists] don’t say, oh, there was progress on the Arab-Israeli front, no shooting today. So, that

’s not the issue. The issue is, is this a layer of anti-Americanism that is fundamental? And I would

argue that there is like 20 layers there. This might be one out of 20, and it should be resolved for

its own reasons, but it’s not decisive in these other theaters.

But does any of us think that al-Qaida will go away if this issue is solved? They never cared about

this issue at all. They’re a Johnny-come-lately to this question.