Islam may in fact be a religion of peace, where in the masses are taught by their religion to be passive in the face of tyrrany, and as such, they are unlikly to rise-up and overthrow a tyrant like Hussain.

Maybe that is why the most brutal dictators seem to rise to the top in that region of the world: The more morderate types are to passive to stop the maniacs from taking over.

If that is true (pure speculation), then the only way for democracy and rule of law to ever take root is to have it inflicted on the region by an outside power...The good news is that if it is true, then the moderate populace will be unlikely to rise-up and resist that outside power and the infliction of democracy, except that Democracy is not really something that can be "inflicted". And democracy requires active and not passive participation by the masses.

Time will tell if democracy and the rule of law will take root in Iraq. It's clear in hindsight that it was never going to happen on its own in Iraq. the power to inflict terror had already been passed down to Sadam's sons. the only question was which one of the sons would have killed the other first?

Scott