[walford]

Mankind is violent.I've recently read a book called Guns, Germs and Steel. It's highly enlightening. Man is more violent than most of us want to admit. Our history and our pre-history is one long tale of murder...

That is certainly true. However, the point that the Kuwaiti is making is that Arab violence cannot be blamed upon outsiders. It is a simple fact that if the State of Israel never existed, the Arabs would be happily killing each other off anyway.

I would go further to say that Saddam's mass-slaughter alluded to in the article was acceptable to the Islamic world because it did not threaten to undermine the major goal of spreading the One True Faith [as does the prospect of limited representative government in the region].

I am increasingly convinced that Taliban or Iranian style society is more about totalitarian power politics than it is about faith.

[happygrl]

I think that the Arab/Muslim world has also had the opportunity to see the example of how the vaunted idea of an Islamic government plays out in reality.

Like Communism, it sounds like a good idea, but the implementation serves to prove the bankruptcy of its core idea.

Arab authoritarianism reached its apogee with Saddam Hussein.

Time to give constitutional democracy a try and have reponsibility devolve to the people.

No one else to blame but themselves.