OSAMA BIN BUSH AND MOHAMMED KERRY

On all sides, the fanatics had a good year (William Pfaff, International Herald Tribune)

2004 was a year of fanaticisms, secular and religious. They drove events in the Mideast, fueling conflict between Jews and Muslims, among Muslims there and elsewhere, and between Muslims and Americans and their allies.

Although they are not the most important forces in a large and varied Islamic world, Al Qaeda, the Taliban and Wahhabi fundamentalists are determined to eject American and other Western influences from their societies. Washington claims an equal determination to crush Muslim terrorism and establish secular democracy in what it calls the new Middle East.

The Muslim movements are inspired by a combination of nationalism and religion, and Washington by fear and ideology. Neither will succeed, but the struggle will be costly.

Extremism is internal as well as external. In the American presidential election, the Republicans used "cultural" and moral issues - abortion, homosexuality and feminism - to distract ordinary voters from the economic and social issues directly affecting their lives, where their practical interests usually lie with the Democrats.

But Democrats have driven away many of their natural supporters by their own sectarian and intolerant commitment to feminist and gay issues dear to the party's elite but distressing to masses of working-class and lower-middle-class voters.

Gotta give Mr. Pfaff credit. It takes a rare and unusual talent to outrage us so much that we want to jump to the defense of the Democrats, but he did it.