I can't give your excellent question adequate time to compose a thorough thoughtful reply right now, but the short answer is that defusing the explosive issue of the Palestinian homelands should be a top priority. No isolationism, but far more focus on domestic ills, including most significantly, the economy. I don't know if President Bush has it in him, but I'd like to see the United States return to what his father at least paid lip service: a kinder, gentler United States. In the long run, we in the West should encourage efforts in the Arab and Islamic sectors to raise their educational standards and vastly improve its infrastructure, and while we're at it, we should consider reforms in our own educational system.

It's much easier to sway uneducated masses than educated ones.

sp