Originally Posted By: Mike@North Bend

There is very little chance that anything resembling a democracy can exist in the middle east. Unlike the U.S., where religion and politics are separate, in the Muslim world, they are very much the same.


Be careful not to underestimate the influence of the church in our fair republic, Mike. While I generally believe that the separation between church and state in the US has increased over the years, one need look no further than the inscription on our currency and the battle cry used to spur on our military to find evidence that they were once very much married. When one considers the influence of money and the military on everything that gets done by our government, those are two particularly prominent locations for religious doctrine.

That said, I agree that attempting to establish democracies in the Middle East is futile, and that doesn't upset me in the least (save for the huge amounts of money we have already squandered on that pursuit). Contrary to what many seem to believe, I don't think turning the rest of the world's governments into democracies would fix anything. Besides that, the brand of democracy we practice in our country is more than a little watered down.