I think there are probably far more decent, peaceful people in those countries than we realize, regular folks who have a live and let live attitude but, with good reason, are in fear for their lives if they should speak up. Hopefully the tide is beginning to turn in their favor and they'll be saying more and more, "I'm mad as hell and I'm not gonna take this shit anymore from the violent, self serving punk asses who want to run my life." This is where Blah's timeline comes into play for me - the western world had a head start in getting past the bulk of the violence and the middle east is playing catch up. They once had a flourishing, intelligent society, and could once again. Or they could just continue to kill each other off through sheer stupidity.