Fast-Changing Arab World Is Upending U.S. Assumptions – NYTimes.com

why we held the same out of touch, out-dated, projecting a blanket interpretation of common values onto a culture with its own, embarrassingly white guy bureaucrat moron assumptions for so long is beyond me.

out intelligence community and our foreign policy analysts must not be very well rewarded for saying something new and outside the approved language – even behind closed doors. Foreign affairs is no place for yesmen. Or at least there HAS to be a point where good information and honest assessments based on relevant facts must occur. Our inability to recognize the circumstances of our global neighbors or properly surmise the tenor of international relations is worrisome.