That having been said I think that we have to largely not interfere with them coming to power while never trusting them. We must become independent of them and their oil as quickly as possible. It’s a reason at least as important as the environment to change virtually everything about our energy usage and sources of energy.

There should be no sympathy for terrorist organizations like the Brotherhood, Hamas, Fatah, or Hizballah, no matter how much they replace what is normally provided privately or by governments in the developed world. They are terrorists. And their assistance to the people is hardly the best; consider how Palestinian children are brainwashed to support and later engage in terrorism. You won’t see Farfour on Western TV.

But right off the bat, one thing I would say is that it’s going to be very difficult to reverse the trends in the Middle East towards moderate secularism.

Brutal dictators, often with the help of the United States, have all but destroyed moderate nationalistic movements that were threats to the status quo. Those same dictators couldn’t very well ban mosques, so that’s where the new (more deadly) political movements were born.

So what do we do about it? It seems we can’t just start supporting any old popular movement in the Middle East, but we can use our influence to push autocratic governments towards more moderate policies and open government. It’s a universal desire to have some level of control over your lives, whether it’s through elections or bombs. Show people progress and prosperity (perhaps by sharing more of the oil wealth), and then they won’t be as likely to use bombs as an outlet for their frustrations.