Joschka Fischer, Guardian Comment is Free, May 5:
President Bush’s Middle East policy undeniably managed to achieve one thing: it has thoroughly destabilised the region. Otherwise, the results are not at all what the US had hoped to accomplish. A democratic, pro-western Middle East is not in the cards.
But, while things are not developing as American neoconservatives had intended, they are nevertheless developing. The historical failure named the Iraq war, the demise of secular Arab nationalism and the soaring oil and gas prices have wrought profound changes in the region. From Damascus to Dubai, from Tel Aviv to Tehran, a new Middle East is now emerging.