Assessing the situation in the Middle East, Prince Hassan of Jordan said: 'The makings of a third world war are happening before our very eyes.' The horror and humiliation of the Middle East has a global reach, sparking violence everywhere. We have heard it before; the struggle for global supremacy between the democratic west and the communist east did not produce a third world war. But it did produce a deadly cold war.
The war on terrorism can be compared to the cold war, which took half a century to win; with soft and hard policies. Soft policies included the Marshall Plan, open markets and democracy building. Confusing nationalism and the legitimate longing for self-determination when the old empires refused to die was a tragic miscalculation. Sordid deals were struck and almost anyone's murderous policies were excused as long as they were anti-communist.
In the war against terrorism, unusual allies and coalitions are fast being assembled. British Prime Minister Tony Blair's historic trip to Libya to meet the once-despised leader of global terrorism, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, is a bit like president Richard Nixon's visit to Mao Zedong in the 1970s.
Common enemies make uncommon alliances. The US once sponsored Saddam Hussein when he fought Iran. Israel sponsored Hamas, hoping to weaken the Palestinian Liberation Organisation. Pakistan sponsored the Taleban, and now hunts its soldiers.
Perhaps it was easier to understand when it was war between states. Many still underestimate the meaning of the clash between radical Islam and the concepts of modernity, democracy, women's rights, private enterprise and an open society.
For Osama bin Laden, the very concept of the nation-state is impious. The heroes of nationalism and independence - Gamal Abdel Nasser, the father of modern Egypt, and Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the father of modern Turkey - are said to be traitors to the overarching principle of the Islamic Caliphate. Thus, from Saudi Arabia to the Philippines, governments are threatened.