Experts in the US often identify Islam (and or the "Arab mind") as the major obstacle to democracy in the Middle East. The real major obstacle to democracy in the Middle East (I mean, aside from American sponsorship and support for most dictatorships and tyrannies in the region) is what the US has done to associate the concept of democracy with the mayhem, plunder, murder, strife, and territorial fragmentation, and bombings of daily life in Iraq.