[ClearCase_guy]

To accept this type of thinking is to buy into some genetically-based racist view of people from the Middle East. I don't buy it.

Everyone started out as a tribe of some kind. Look at the German barbarians, or the Celts of France and Britain. Naked tribesmen going off to war, coming back with severed heads. Later on, they produced Goethe, Beethoven and Shakepeare.

The Arabs have spent too long in the 8th century, but they are not condemned to be there forever. They just need to be shown the way forward.

[Oldexpat]

Seems to me he has been proved dead wrong..since a vast majority of the people in Iraq and Afghanistan turned out for the elections. Higher than here. The insurgents and terrorists are still in the vast minority and dying fast.
There is no lack of interest in democracy in these places, but there sure is in Hollywood and DC.
So if you think democracy is a bad deal for you..I’ll give you a list of hell holes that operate by your rules.
Ingrate.

[isrul]

"They just need to be shown the way forward. "

And that means what? Abandon the murderous, ideological cult they have embraced for centuries? Good luck with that.

[Tailback]

Everyone started out as a tribe of some kind. Look at the German barbarians, or the Celts of France and Britain. Naked tribesmen going off to war, coming back with severed heads. Later on, they produced Goethe, Beethoven and Shakepeare.

Outstanding point! If you don't mind I'm going to save that paragraph and use it in the future. I would like to add the tribes of Israel.

So what was the force that changed this tribalism into something else? I would say it was Greek Philosophy and scientific method combined with Judeo/Christian values.

[Clemenza]

Let us not forget that during the French Revolution in the late 18th century, ordinary men tore bodies to bits and we have documented cases of severed heads being tossed and men biting a chunk out of the hearts of the deceased to the roar of the crowd.

There is a very thin veneer between civilization and barbarism. Arabs are no different from the rest of us in this regard. You show me Egypt, I will show you Dubai.

I've often been told that the Chinese are incapable of even the most modest forms of republican government. The evolution of Taiwan from dictatorship to one of the most democratic society in Asia alone proves this to be wrong.