Damned If We Do

One of the problems with liberating a Moslem-majority country from a thug autocratic ruler is that Saudi money and influence enters the vacuum to bolster the worst sort of Islam. Kosovo was an early alarm bell for this problem.

Anything we can do to leverage opposing Iran in a Saudi-led coalition should be done to pressure the Saudis into cutting off that money and ideology flow.

Of course, the other problem is that failure to overthrow a thug ruler in a Moslem-majority country is that the corrupt and harsh autocratic  rule encourages support for Islamists who promise that "pure" Islam can restore the country's greatness.

So anything we can do to keep the price of oil low should be done to reduce the amount of money available to send to Islamists.

And trying to strengthen the yearnings of Arabs who rose up in the desire for democracy--as poorly as they understood it--as an alternative to autocracy or Islamism as means to govern their countries should be a priority if we want to end the threat of the jihad.

Islam has a problem. A problem that mostly inflicts death and misery on Moslems.

But the West is suffering collateral damage from this struggle over whether the problem is crushed or becomes the norm in Islam.