Frankly, I think the President is doing the right thing by making nice with the Muslim world. The vast majority of Muslims are not terrorists, car bombers or IED-makers. They're trying to survive day-to-day, just like us. They just practice a different religion. For the President to visit their countries and make a speech directly to them from their turf might temper a lot of the bad ideas about the U.S. being circulated by the Islamic terrorists and the mid-East media that leans in their direction.

Making such appearances and speeches to try to get our message across more directly sure can't hurt, I think. Besides, unless we get a majority of Muslims who will be at least neutral to the U.S., what chance do we have in brokering a permanent peace between Palestine and Israel or make any progress with the Iranian "problem"? Remember, the Muslims he's speaking to on this trip are almost all Sunnis and the Iranians are Shia'...and for centuries, never the twain shall meet. But there are a whole lot more Sunnis than there are Shia'.

Let's not also forget that within 20-30 years, all of western Europe will be majority Muslim, with another huge Muslim concentration forming on our northern border in Canada. We'd better start communicating with them sometime, methinks. Now is as good a time as any.

Regarding the inclusion of Saudi Arabia on his itinerary, it makes a lot of sense to me that he tries to enhance the relationship with the powers-that-be in the country that supplies us with a whole lot of oil and buys a whole lot of our Treasury bonds. As much as we might dislike the Islamic religious conservatism of the Saudis, they do have oil...and money...and they have been willing to buy our debt. Facts not to be ignored.