Josh “I need a blog” Zader sent me a link to a rather interesting story on the good grasp that Arab scholars and intellectuals have on the problems in their own countries.

I particularly enjoyed this tidbit:

But the academic Left isn’t alone in misjudging the Middle East. The realpolitik of the U.S. government that allies itself with Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and other “moderate” Arab states offers little long-term hope for an improved relationship with people of the Middle East. It is no accident that America is more popular in countries whose awful governments hate the United States — Iraq and Iran, for example — than among the public of its so-called allies. Saudis, Kuwaitis, Pakistanis and Egyptians, after all, have been murdering Americans far more frequently than have Iranians, Iraqis and Syrians.

Yup!

(Josh mentioned that he found the story through InstaPundit, but I haven’t caught myself up on the InstaVacationBacklog yet. So it’s like those NBC summer reruns: New to me!)