Submitted by Rosanne Klass, Jan 2, 2008 17:16

For those without the time to wade through Stanley Kirtz's brilliant but dense essay in the Claremont Review, Mark Steyn has as usual summarized the situation skillfully and wittily. For those who want to really try to understand the situation and the threat of Islamofascism -- not only in Pakistan but throughout much of the Muslim world fro India to Morocco -- Kurtz's article , which is reprinted in today's Wall Street Journal Online, is essential reading and study. (Despite decades of involvement with that very complicated region, I was surprised at how little I know.)

It is obvious that absolutely none -- NONE -- of the presidential candidates of either party has the slightest grasp of the situation, not only its complexities but their basis in society and culture; and probably few if indeed any in the State Dept., the Defense Dept. or the CIA understand it, either. Not even superficially. Mark Steyn has done a service in calling attention to the Kurtz article-- and in summarizing some of its conclusions for a wider readership..(His one stumble is his assumption that Muslims of India will remain immune; Kurtz mkes it clear that they may not.)

Rosanne Klass [Author of "Land of the HIgh Flags: Afghanistan When the Going Was Good"; director, Afghanistan Information Center, Freedom Houe, 1980-1991; editor, co-author of "Afghanistan -- The Great Game Revisited", etc.]

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