The New Taleban

I think someone may have been asleep at the switch. It seems that Hamas is the new Taleban. The original Taleban started in disorganised corrupt Afghanistan. The religious fundamentalists were the only ones that people could trust. They guarded the trade routes, provided education (slanted, but at least an education) and generally provided services to the poor who were constantly exploited by the corrupt regional warlords. They charged the caravaners for their services and provided protection. These fundamentalists didn't loot or kill those they promised protection and thus became the party of choice to deal with. Their idealism drew many younger people who were sick of all the corruption and the Taleban used these (mainly) men to run their protection and social service programs. Gradually they became THE power in Afghanistan and provided respite and protection for fellow Islamic Jihadists. Hamas, it appears, learned these lessons well. They also have been providing schooling, charity services, medical care etc for the Palestinians. This has been in contrast to the ruling Fatah party which has been totally despotic, lethargic and corrupt. Hamas learned how to be successful from the Afghani model and then duplicated the results in Palestine. The U.S. pushed for elections without noticing that the common people were sick and tired of a corrupt regime and were becoming more and more reliant on the Jihadists for basic services to survive. Hamas filled their bellies and their minds.
So the U.S. as the main protector of Israel has to figure out how to deal with this new Taleban. Mainstream Arab nations better learn the lesson now before it is too late and they too become Taleban states. The U.S. has just re-committed to Afghanistan, is still embroiled in Iraq, is tangling with Iran, doesn't trust Syria, has Russia and China clamouring to be the main powers in the Middle East and is lurching from patchwork solution to patchwork solution. Bush is probably praying his last couple of years just zoom by. Condi is more sure then ever that she isn't going to run and Hilary just may inherit the presidency as in 2 more years the foreign and domestic affairs of the States are going to be chaos and the Republicans will blame it all on the easy going Democrats who are "soft" on enemies. Now is the time for Europe to get off the pot and do something. Or the U.N. If neither of these 2 groups can be resolute and focused then they will have lost all credibility and have created a destabilised environment for China to step in and be THE superpower. This WILL be interesting!