William J. Bennett & Seth Leibsohn on Middle East on National Review Online: "It is long past time to forgo the notion that Israel is the obstacle to peace in the Middle East or the cause of terrorism there or here. Quite simply, democracies do not start wars with other democracies — nor do democracies support terrorism. When democracy takes hold in the nascent Palestinian state there will be peace; until then, there will be terrorism, and we should not be complicit in the creation of another terrorist state. By democracy, we do not mean one man, one vote, one time, but, rather, democracy defined by the rule of law, and by freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of religion, and freedom to be educated in schools that are not devoted to anti-Jewish and anti-Western propaganda. There is no need for another Syria or Iran — the world is surfeited with the difficulties they have wrought already."

As much as the modern world has chaffed over the conquest of Europe by Christian states in the years following the collapse of the Roman Empire, no one can argue that these conquests laid the foundation for the Christian Europe of the Reformation Age and the introduction of democracy and the freedoms listed in this article. Solomon said, "A wise king scattereth the wicked, and bringeth the wheel over them." --Proverbs 20:26. The primitive and pagan kingdoms the conquered by the Christian states were not innocent, fun-loving, and sweet children of nature--they were vicious murderers, brutal rulers that held their people in abject bondage, just like Saddam and the petty Middle Eastern dictators.

A great book that realistically looks at the triumph of Christianity in Europe is The Barbarian Conversion, by Richard Fletcher. New York, Henry Holt and Company, 1997 ISBN 0-8050-2763-7. It can be ordered through Amazon.