lensatic compass: Reading the Bernard Lewis comments reminded me of when I read a lengthy article, replete with color photographs, about a very ornate single-shot, muzzle-loading pistol. It had been converted to caplock from its original condition, which was matchlock. It was part of a largish order some mideastern potentate had ordered for his personal bodyguards.

Naturally I assumed that the order took place
many, many centuries previously. Imagine my shock when I learned that this was from the 1850s. Everybody else in the world was out buying cap and ball revolvers and this guy spent a fortune on matchlocks????!!!!!!

As long as that kind of attitude shapes their culture, we will have trouble with their resultant envy. Hope Richard/Wretchard is right when he says that cultural transformation is taking place as a result of our presence in Iraq.