A vast difference in perspectives and outlook. And when we examine the world through our own eyes only, we have no ability to see the world as others see it, or see ourselves as others see us.

In the book "Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: America, the Cold War, and the Roots of Terror," Mahmood Mamdani explains that for Islamist thinkers like Sayyid Qutb, often vilified by the West, the ultimate goal is the establishment of human freedom and dignity under an Islamic order, not human repression. For much of Islam, violence is a necessary tool for spreading freedom.

Mamdani quotes Qutb:
"Islam is a declaration of the freedom of every man or woman from servitude to other humans. It seeks to abolish all those systems and governments that are based on the rule of some men over others, or the servitude of some to others. When Islam releases people from this political pressure and presents to them its spiritual message, appealing to their reason, it gives them complete freedom to accept or reject it."

What the Bush presidency has brought to Iraq is not freedom as we understand it in the West, but will end up being freedom from the secular government maintained by Saddam. In ten years we will have created something in Iraq we won't like very much.

Publius