[MMMMMM]

At any rate it's undoubtedly correct that democracies treat their own people better than do totalitarian regimes. Most obvious example is the scores of millions killed by Stalin and Mao. And if you were given the hypothetical choice somewhow: one of these two guys gets the bomb, the other doesn't...whose hands would you put it in?

Krushchev or Kennedy?

Hitler or Churchill?

Assad or Sharon?

Kim Jong-il or Roh?

As for "backwards barbarian hordes", usng that description doesn't in any way advocate genocide--and the context I used it in was purely defensive, and slightly tongue-in-cheek. However much of the Middle East really does happen to be damn backwards. Fanatical, superstitious, aggressive, barbaric in crime and punishment, uneducated...that = BACKWARDS.

If it was a bunch of redneck hillbilly dumbass white supremacists living in an enclave somewhere in Appalachia, would you object to the term "backwards?" Well, much of the Middle East is that much backwards and more.