I can’t stand the neocons. But I also can’t stand it when people attempt to compare Hamas to just any other political party. Same for Hezbollah. The level of ignorance and/or naivete it takes to do that just appalls me.

I’m not familiar enough with Islam to know if democracy could work, but I do know that at this point most ME countries would elect extremist anti-Western leaders if given the opportunity. This has already occurred in Palestine, Egypt, and Lebanon, and Bush and the neocons had no clue what to do about it.

One thing does fascinate me- I saw an interview of neocon Robert Kagan , and he said that knowledge of history is the most important component of creating foreign policy. But anyone who has studied history would never have invaded Iraq in the first place, based on the disasterous British occupation in the 20′s and 30′s.

Abroad, it is used as nothing but a front for imperial control. Take Iraq for example. Most Iraqis want us gone, and say we are part of the problem. Are we leaving? Of course not, because we only want democracy when the people freely choose to follow our lead.

What about in Lebanon? We punish the Lebanese for voting for Hezbollah. So much for democracy there. Same goes for Palestine and Hamas.

More importantly, the people of the Middle East should be left to find their own way. Maybe, if left to their own devices, they’ll come up with a better alternative to our form of a republic. It’s not impossible.