After Neoconservatism
The articles by Francis Fukuyama, Nir Rosen and Dexter Filkins ('Strategy Tragedy?') made me reach for my copy of Paul Berman's March 23, 2003, Times Magazine article, 'The Philosopher of Islamic Terror,' about Sayyid Qutb. At the end of the article, Berman asks who in the West is going to speak up as the counterbalance to the deep philosophical ideas articulated by Qutb and being acted upon by Zarqawi and others. Political leaders, he reminds us, 'speak of United Nations resolutions, of unilateralism, of multilateralism, of weapons inspectors, of coercion and noncoercion' while concluding that 'This is no answer to the terrorists.' I'm still waiting for the hero of this war on Islamo-fascism to emerge.
Lawrence Appell
Scottsdale, Ariz.