Hard to judge a couple of paragraphs taken out of a broader article, which is an article for containment and staying out of the way. The article does overlook a critical issue, which is that Islamic fundamentalism threatens a number of Arab governments--Egypt, Algeria, and Saudia Arabia come to mind, that are important in an calculus of American interests. I think it also underestimates the way that these movements can put pressure on European governments. I do like the end to the original post: "We should stand well clear. An imperium in its death throes can be a nasty beast; I am by the same token nervous that the American empire may lurch dangerously around for decades to come. For the rest of us, as we contemplate these dysfunctional beasts, the best advice is that offered to his country (when America really was at a zenith) by President Truman, as the Soviet imperium headed for its afternoon: containment, not confrontation, is the wisest policy"