SOME THOUGHTS ON the Arab Spring and secular dreams. “In that area of the world, secular dreams seem to me to be the most foolish. How that particular dream manages to stay alive among the elite of the West is beyond me.”

Back in 2005, things looked more promising; I think we might have seen real progress then, but the Bush Administration unaccountably backed off and we lost the momentum. Then the Islamists had 5 years to organize, which they did.