I speak without close knowledge of cultures or politics, religions or hopes. Nevertheless, I think it would be useful to commit a few words to an idea being bandied about now: a regional (pan-Islamic?) conference and consequent semi-permanent mechanism to broker, negotiate, mediate and facilitate peace in Iraq. This spells danger, I'm afraid, for the administration, but not, I suggest, for the wider cause of peace and, especially, not for our overall success in the war on terror. We would have to give up visions of a decisive, "classical" victory, and even the prized commodity of "control" in favor of better relations in the Muslim world. There would be attendant exchanges in many important ways that would tend to meliorate, if not provide a sound footing for solving, the core problems that drive our nations apart and give rise to the violent, radical Islamic terrorism the world has come to condemn. This, my friends, is thinking outside the box, which, in this instance, is our prison.
