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So which is your viewpoint? :-)

You still haven't identified a valid culture.

That history cannot be compared to that of Iraq.

Iraq was always a synthetic state; drawn up arbitrarily by colonial powers who have a good track record of leaving former colonies configured in such a way as to be constantly in conflict.

I can't see how your response is relevant to the previous text.

I still don't understand how your tangential comment applies to maintaing a regime. The problem for any regime is the recognition and control of dissidents.

But you said earlier that it was the elite. :-)

The stereotypical dissolution planter in the middle East has never worked because there was no opportunity to work; especially to provide a level of satisfaction to that individual. They see great injustice in inequity and the lack of they themselves being able to determine thier own future. There is a level of frustration and the whole environment makes those less well off especially vulnerable to "programming".

A firend of mine from Iran said that he was ready to strap on a plant wnd blow himself up for his beliefs when he was young. He can work out why others might want to do that; but he's out-grown that.

All cultures have "angry young men".

The problem is that Christianity hasn't entirely outgrown that phase. Christian fundamentalism is alive. And many are using it for personal "enrichment" and as a means of recruiting disciples. A less-recent example is Jim Jones.

I observe that your language is emotional. Can I not buttume that you are responding with a bias determined by emotion? e.g. fear

Perhaps an inopportune time. It's like learning about Christianity during the Crusades after they've ransacked your village.

You'd start by equating those ransacking being the same as all other Christians.

Clinton could only stop aid from the USA. Neither he nor his successors have any control over what China, Europe, Australia, etc choose to do. The politicians in the democratic countries have to answer to their electorates who may take a dim view of allowing hundreds of thousands of civilians starve to rest or die from treatable ailments. -- "Bernd Felsche - Innovative Reckoning, Perth, Western Australia ASCII ribbon campaign "Laws do not persuade just because X against HTML mail they threaten." and postings Lucius Annaeus Seneca, c. 4BC - 65AD.