Alain Gresh discusses the "war on terrorism" in historical context--foreign policy during the Cold War, the war on the Sandinistas' Nicaragua, the war against the Soviet presence in Afghanistan, the present war in Iraq. Gresh touches on the ideologies of the likes of Samuel Huntington--the 'clash of civilizations' perspective and the growth of 'Islamophobia'. He concludes "Parts of both western and Islamic opinion are prepared to believe that, behind the present conflicts, civilisations really are clashing. The key divisions in society are no longer between the powerful and the weak, rich and poor, haves and have-nots, but between them and us. The countries of the West should forget the struggle between classes and line up in the battle against the Other. What would be the result? A thousand-year war whose only result would be to bring comfort to the established (dis)order."