Stunningly naive

By Oliver North

ATHENS, GREECE -- "While changing planes here in this ancient capital, I arranged to meet with an old friend who has long experience in the Middle East. Fluent in many Mediterranean and Persian Gulf languages and intimately familiar with the long, sad history of enmity in the region, he worked quietly with Americans for decades.

'Does anyone in the United States understand what's happening today?' he asked as we sat down over cups of strong coffee. 'Look at this,' he said, gesturing to headlines in the stack of newspapers he had placed on the table. 'The world is at the brink of a cataclysm with radical Islam, and no one in the U.S. government seems to know it. Washington is stunningly naive.' " Read on.