Liberals' answer to terrorists: Talk them through their feelings

[a_majoor]

We already broke the area (royal we) by invading in 2003. This is just a result of short sighted politicians pulling troops out too early and leaving a power vacuum for extremists thrive in.

We broke it, right or wrong, so it's our responsibility to stabilize the mess.

No it was broken centuries before that. Anyway, magical thinking seems to dominate the discussion; is it the fault of the Crusaders? Maybe the Romans didn't do a good enough job sacking Jerusalem? Alexander III destabilizing the region by destroying the Persian Empire and spreading Hellenistic influence across the region and into the Indian Subcontinent?

The real problem is with few exceptions the region has little in the way of resources, natural borders or modern social, cultural or institutional structures. The "natural" state of affairs outside of naturally protected enclaves is shifting tribal regions dotted around oasis and natural watercourses. If *we* think we have the responsibility to fix things, then we will need to devote decades of time and resources to build and nurture the social, political and economic structures of a modern society and tran people to use them until it sticks. Western Nation States didn't even exist until after 1648, and we can point to various things along the way that led to where we are now (Free Speech evolved over 800 years starting with the Magna Carta). Erasing some of the more virulent strains of *Western* thought took quite a bit of doing; WWII erased National Socialism for over 60 years as a serious political movement, and after a prolonged 70 year struggle we managed to collapse Communism. If it takes that much time and effort to fix problems created by Western philosophy, then fixing Islamic radicalism isn't going to be any easier.