Maybe if I just diagramed the sentence out....

Okay. Maybe it’s just me, or maybe it’s because it’s late and I’m tired, but see if the Virgin Ben is saying what I think he is saying:

But the sight of Iranians seeking freedom convinced me that President Bush's mission to bring democracy to the Middle East could be successful.

If Western Europe has its way, this will never happen. France, Germany and their other accommodation-minded cohorts are in the palms of Middle Eastern Islamic dictatorships. For these countries that never experienced the tyranny of Communist rule during the Cold War, the idea of evil is anathema.[my emphasis]

Is college student Ben saying that Germany never “experienced the tyranny of Communist rule during the Cold War”?

Does he take the short bus to UCLA?

If he is saying what I think he is saying...does Townhall employ editors that let stuff like this go through?