Carrot and the Stick

David Warren's newest column in the Ottowa Citizen contains this nugget at the end:

What links Jerusalem with Riyadh with Baghdad, and ultimately with every other city in the Middle East, is the carrots. Wherever Colin Powell or senior members of his State Department go to offer more, there will be violence. Wherever the stick is waved -- as recently in Iraq -- there will be fresh thinking. It really is time we began to master this silly little paradox.

We in the West often see carrots as offers of reconciliation and goodwill; in other parts of the world, they are despised as emanations of the weak. The State Department needs to learn the difference, fast.

By the way, David Warren has consistently had great columns this year in the buildup and aftermath of the Battle for Iraq (of the World War IV).