Put this together with the 'Property in Araby' section of Tom Bethell's
The Noblest Triumph - Property and Prosperity Through the Ages, and the whole ugly mosaic of Islamic / Arabic culture assumes a disturbing clarity. It's why I'm not sanguine about our hopes of establishing a secular democracy in Iraq - or anywhere else in the Islamic / Arabic world. I ran across another essay a while back - 'Islam and the Theology of Power,' that offered interesting facts regarding the 'freeze' in progress that afflicted Islamic cultures around the 11th and 12th centuries. As time permiuts, I'll key in parts of Bethell's work and I'll see if I can dig up that essay.
The bottom line is that we are dealing with a culture, a meme and a religion that is not only profoundly crippled, it is by its nature a natural breeding ground for the sort of hatred and death-worshippers we see today. Nothing short of a thorough annihilation of that culture and the memes and ideas that drive it will divert them from their desire to destroy us all.
This administration has extensive ties to the Saudi Royal Family.
We can only hope that desire for American security over-rides this connection. Saudi is, and has been, the chief financier of the Islamofacists and deserve thier just rewards for all the attacks on US interests overseas and the attack here at home on 9-11-01.