The heavily fortified Green Zone in Baghdad, from where the United States indirectly administers most things Iraqi, seems to have caught the fancy of the Bush administration. It seems to be repeating in the rest of the Middle East the same isolation from its surroundings practiced in Iraq. This is evident in this week’s trip …

If you want to get a sense of which way the wind is blowing in a society, you should consult its youth or its best opinion pollsters. Last month, I had the chance to do both in Dubai, and in the process learned about significant changing attitudes and new trends in the Arab region. I …