Good for Tony Blair. He is starting to see what the actual problem is though even in this speech he had to dance around a bit by saying lack of economic opportunity is "a prime proximate cause" of Middle East chaos.
That doesn't take away from his main point though, there are sides to be taken and we must recognize that and take one. One thing he didn't say, maybe given his position he couldn't say, was that there is seemingly a paradox we will have to acknowledge. That is in order to preserve religious freedom, we are going to have to suppress a certain religious belief, the convert or die belief. If you are confronted with that you can't compromise with it. It cannot be allowed to stand and must be changed. Mr. Blair doesn't say that but he recognizes it when he says things like the current Egyptian gov must be backed in its contest with the Muslim Brotherhood, they aren't trying to gently change the minds of the MB, they are actively suppressing them.
This is a pretty big thing really, that a certified member of the international establishment sees and says what the problem really is, it is one of religion.
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