While nearly all political leaders and major media outlets prefer to pretend otherwise, the reality of the Middle East is actually fairly easy to understand. Two knowledgeable writers sum it up.  The clarity of Caroline Glick is truly cathartic. She writes:Both the popularity of Islamist parties and their behavior after being popularly elected have confounded Western reasoning -- particularly in the US. Quite simply, successive administrations in Washington have been unable to provide an accurate explanation of what drives the population of these countries, and increasingly of the Islamic world in general to support Islamist parties and movements. ...There is an alternative explanation for the behavior of the peoples of the Islamic world that actually can explain events, and has successfully forecast them. It has even engendered policy recommendations that might have mitigated both the popularity of the Islamist parties and deterred these parties, once elected,...(Read Full Post)