MORE THOUGHTS ON CHECHNYA AND TERROR, over at Winds of Change.

UPDATE: Related thoughts here:

Obviously, we must eliminate terrorists wherever we find them, but we must also provide an example of moral leadership and devote resources to transforming education in the Muslim world, replacing the odious madrasahs that are the breeding grounds for hate. These so-called religious schools are often financed by Saudi Arabia, which has halfway awakened to the fatal disease it has incubated, but Shiite Iran remains the greatest threat. It is radically ideological, seeks nuclear weapons, and sponsors Syrian terrorism as well as most of the terrorism in Iraq. If that weren’t enough, it also sponsors and arms most of the face cards in terrorism’s unholy deck–Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Fatah. Iran, truly, is the problem of the future. So we must promote political democracy whenever we can in the region. Remember what Abu Musab Zarqawi, the ruthless terrorist leader in Iraq, wrote in his memo to al Qaeda? “Democracy is coming. There will be no excuse thereafter for terrorism in Iraq.”

Perhaps we can start democratizing Iran next.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Roger Simon notes the politics of Pirandello at the New York Times.