The 9/11 Commission Report is an admirable and articulate document. It is admirable in its authors’ clear concern to come up with pos- sible ways to reduce the likelihood of future Islamist attacks on American civilians without taking political potshots. It is articulate in its general narrative style and its wealth of spe- cific information and references. Small won- der that the report has been widely hailed, that people have actually read it, that it was nominated for a National Book Award and that many politicians have felt pressure to implement some of its recommendations. It is especially heartening that a central conclu- sion of the Report is that the United States must do much more to build a broad foreign Contemporary Sociology 34, 2 Compromising Toward Confusion: The 9/11 Commission Report and American Policy in the Middle East DAVID M. MEDNICOFF University of Massachusetts—Amherst mednic@legal.umass.edu