Sometimes Smart People Say Stupid Things.

Case in point, Francis Fukuyama, best known for his 1992 book, "The End of History and the Last Man." He has a new book about the Iraq War, one in which he claims it was a bad idea. This is part of a new book from the neo-con historian and culture critic, called "America at the Crossroads," his latest tome.
Now I will cut Mr. Fukuyama some slack on this because he is usually right on when it comes to issues of national security, but I will also let BRET STEPHENS over at the WSJ take the history of Mr. Fukuyama's stand against the war to task.
I want to focus on one of the other points that Mr. Stephens raises in his "review' of this book. Mr. Stephens breaks part of the book's argument down with this piece:

the administration failed to anticipate the extent to which the war would aggravate anti-Americanism and reshape global politics accordingly. Second, it mischaracterized and exaggerated the threat posed by radical Islamism: Jihadism, he writes, is "a byproduct of modernization and globalization, not traditionalism," which is better dealt with by integrating Muslims already living in the West than by " 'fixing' the Middle East." (emphasis mine)

What?!?!?
Here is a man who understood the historic ramifications of the death of communism, as it was dying, and yet he misses the whole history of Islamism and Jihadism. These ideas were not born when the House of Saud let infidels build airbases on their land, or even when Jews moved back into the Promised Land, NO these ideals and ways of life have existed in Islam for as long as there has been Islam.
Jihad is one of the tenants of the faith. It is how the religion spread thro the already Christianized Middle East, southwestern Europe, and even the southeastern corner of Europe, to the gates of Vienna. In their wake "infidels" were either killed, converted or made into dhimmi.
If you have any questions about this, check out the book link included.