I'll be the first to admit that the war on terror has been mismanaged and probably been made much worse by the American administration's zealotry, stupidity and incompetence, but that is not equivalent to saying that the US is responsible for it. The Islamist movement we are seeing now is a manifestation of a recurring resurgence of Arab nationalism, disguised as and entertwined with Muslim fanaticism, that periodically occurs, and has been occurring for the last millenium or so. Historical events, such as European colonialism, CIA meddling in Iran, and the Palestinian issue, have played an aggravating role in this phenomenon but they are not the cause of it.

The Jihadists and their precursors have been active in the Arab world and in North Africa since the 60s, targeting Arab and Muslim states such as Algeria and Morocco whose major crime in their eyes has been resistance to Jihadist activity, not collaboration with the West. This movement is nationalistic (Arab), religious (Muslim) and sectarian (Sunni fundamentalism) and these are its primary characteristics. They will exploit the activities of the West; good, bad or indifferent, for their purposes, but their primary motivation is historical, this is indeed a clash of civilizations.

The important thing to remember is that in spite of their enormous gains over the last few years (fueled by American stupidity and Saudi money), this movement is still a relatively small portion of the Muslim world, and their primary struggle is not against the West, but against other Muslims. It is the failure of the United States to understand this that is the primary reason for their success. But I can guarantee you, there is nothing, absolutely nothing, America could do that would make this problem just go away. America's major error is thinking that anything it does will necessarily make it go away.