David Warren’s newest piece comments on the news this week that the Arab League summit has been called off because of the desire of several participants to discuss further realignment of Arab states with the United States. Mr. Warren is his usual insightful self, and discusses George Shultz’s excellent op-ed from earlier this week. In concluding, Mr. Warren observes:

The issue is more fundamental than democracy, and glib rhetoric about democracy (from Bush and Blair, among others) has helped to obscure it. In the present circumstances of the world, where a suitcase nuclear bomb or vial of anthrax can open the gates of hell, we cannot afford to ignore breeding grounds for terrorists. Failed or rogue states — states unable or unwilling to deal with international threats as they form within their own territories — must be replaced with states that are able and willing. Hence regime change in e.g. Afghanistan and Iraq.