Very depressing, but probably true. It's a great pity that the West cannot simply disconnect from the Middle East.

Arabs are light years away from understanding democracy as we know it.And many more light years from allowing it to become part of their politics.
They and us are as water and oil, we are totally and permanently different.They have their ways ,we have ours,and the most criminally stupid act has been to permit Muslim immigration into this western ,peaceful nation.
Democracy is not for tribal or despotic nations. We are still learning the ways of it in the west and though it is not the perfect answer to everything , it is better than nothing.

Very well written Abe. The problem remains, that democracy is about more then one vote one value. Had the Salafists won in Algeria,
it would have been about religious tyranny, not democracy as we understand it. That is Islam's problem, its highly political.

Take the case of the present Iranian prez. The man is clearly a nutcase, yet if he should get the bomb, anything could happen.
Democracy needs checks and balances to function, such as the
separation of religion and the state.

Yup, much of the Middle East is still tribal. Yup George Bush
has made a fool of himself in the the Middle East. Bring back Clinton! So what do you propose as the solution?

Yabby wrote "much of the Middle East is still tribal" If the Bush family is not tribal then what do we want in the Middle East.