"Democracy for Arabs? You are stupid! for thousands of years Arabs have been educated to wake up in the morning and get hit by a big stick, go to lunch, and get hit once again. Then when they go to sleep, they never know if they wake up as the current dictator or ruling tribe decide what to do with their miserable lives." So yes. Those stupid enough to try to force democracy on a people who follow a primitive and barbaric religion will ALWAYS fail. What Arabs need and deserve is to be screwed all their lives by their own corrupt dictators who sometimes call themselves "kings" or "presidents" or "messengers of God". If one such a dictator messes with the world peace, then "the world" must go in, beat the crap outa him until he decides that it is not worthwile to angry his neighbors and learns to play dead. After that, GET THE HELL outa there. Not like the US does in Iraq and Afghanistan. They should have cracked Saddam's head open and wipe off his Republican Guards back in '91 and gain a swift, decisive and VISIBLE victory, then leave and never come back - unless the dictator following Saddam makes the same mistakes. If the US had handled Iraq and Afghanistan like this right from the beginning, Iran, Korea and other scum of Earth and petty Latrine America Microbes would get the message that the US means business and that it is not in their best interest to mess with it unless they want to lose their money and lives. And yes, MONEY and their LIVES is what these vicious dictators love most!

It's called the Syrian Reform Party, headed by a very intelligent man called Farid Gadri. Sometimes he even writes here, very illuminating things. It's true he is living in exile and can't come to Syria for fear of his life, but his position still permeates into Syria and finds attentive listeners.

You know that Adolph Hitler came to power by the polls? The conditions that exists in so-called Arab world is much similar to that conditions existed in 1930s Germany. The sense of victimhood and nostalgia to some glorious past .. The blame of some external enemy - Preferably the Jews - for all the misery, diseases, poverty, internet viruses, economic depression etc etc. Till recently, i.e. pre 9/11 2001, if you browse any "moderate" Arab country school curricula, you can't but notice the disdain for non Muslims and glorification of Jihad and martyrdom. You have the Satellite channels which aren't good at anything but to blame the evil materialistic corrupt decadent West for creating the ZIONIST Entity. What you have in the Arab world is basically a cultural shock due to the constant clash between the values of modernity and the values of the middle ages. So, you should not be surprised at all if Assad get the most votes in this part of the world, as he is perceived as the guardian of all these out of time values.

You think Obama (or any head of state the world over) doesn't know how it works? I mean, in a similar poll in Israel, who would win? Someone perceived as a traitorous bleeding-heart peacenik?

Hafez Assad because he didn't get into bed with America and he was never afraid to pick a fight with Israel. As a result he was looked up to by arab nationalists as a hero. His son is trying the same tricks. He won't get into bed with America get involved with any grand peace programs sponsored by the US he has his demands to the letter and says take it or leave it. He also loves the sound of his own voice and threatens to take the Golan from Israel by starting a war and although it doesn't seriously worry Israel it sounds good. He is also one of the biggest sponsors of terror and they are the brave heros and they act as a proxy army for him so he can attack Israel. He wants the Golan not because he wants the Golan so badly but to cement the Alawite hold on power, it will have been the great victory and he was the man who pulled it off. Israel & the west should not aim to bring democracy to the world ... thats how we ended up with the Iraq mess and sometimes your better off with the enemy you know. Just take countries as they come and work out how to deal with them.

One of the greatest motives behind the idea of going into Iraq for Bush was its Americas duty to spread democracy throughout the world and thats alot easier to do on paper than in reality and Iraq is proof of that. Getting rid of Saddam brought about elections but the power is in the hands of the unelected terrorists who came to power because there was no more strong man they feared. Saddam should have been left alone. He was controlled and had nothing left in the way of a military. The only people he was a threat to was Iraqis and thanks to the no fly ziones even the Kurds were safe. Thanks to the oil for food program there was a steady flow of oil. Thanks to Saddam and his brutal ways there was order in Iraq & he was one of the few arab leaders who didn't sponsor terror he just game money to the families of suicide bombers. Thanks to the desire to spread democracy to the world Iraq is a bigger headache for the west than during the Gulf War in 1991 at least then we knew how to deal with the problem and it was solved. Assad is the enemy we know and better not to start backing reformists because once they are actually in power things might be different to what you thought they would be. Leave the arabs to kill their own people and we should worry about stopping the arabs killing ours.

Excellent post... you have described the situation in the Muslim world with rarely-seen eloquence and accuracy. Be healthy, ya tayeb...

Im an Iraqi and I can tell you as long as you have shiites and Iran and Islamists you can kiss democracy good bye, I think we need a three state partition plan and divide Iraq in order to have democracy those Shiites are apes they just banned alcohol they should ban it in their shiite territories not in ours.

So ,Ali, How do you cure the Muslims from the dark age blindnes ?

We had a peacenik that reached out to Pals and offered them very generous packages...the same Abbas claims happily that Olmert promised him. In return, the Pals threw rockets, send bombers to blow up buses and families eating dinner, and of course...voting in Hamas to finish the job. So, why is it surprising that after seeing Gaza become a terrorist den instead of a promising State-let and uber-vacation spot, Israelis said "Let's get tough with racist Arabs"?

Leftist American Jews can use some of his psychoanalysis

people of the free world gotta understand that they don't have the luxury to be complacent about this threat. Barbarians are always waiting for the right time to strike. Fortunately American has just awakened while Europe is already a thing of the past.

any comment.

I agree with the writer but jews you should pray to your whatever God that arab not to know the right real Democracy and practice it because if so !!! you will be WIPPED from map. what you are seeing now a days not a real islamic belivers and followers but Ruler who chosen by westren power to run bussiness in middleast countries and controlled by the left hand. The other triers to jump to power like islamic movements RADIKALS the are a toys controlled by right hand. by the way westren power use you to keep arabic heart in unhealthy shape always and when you reach to kill it they interfere to stop you and give him CPR they want sick islamic body not dead ha ha ha ha ha

There is an article that expands on what you wrote: http://www.newmediajournal.us/staff/silverberg/2008/print/09282008.htm It accurately describes the current conditions of the Middle East and Muslim world yet it does not identify the most important underlying cause and greatest obstacle. I think it is Islam. This I say because many nations had such a predicament 200 years ago and made tremendous progress since, all non-Muslim. What do you think? I definitely do not envy you since you must be hiding your views from the rest of your society, friends and family.