America may have been wrong to go to war in Iraq.

It wasn't an intentional wrong. Americans, as a whole, truly believed that getting rid of Saddam would 'jump start' reform in the region. That cannot and will not happen for any number of reasons.

Notwithstanding Arab outrage at American adventurism, Saddam was a beast of the highest order. The Arab world turned a blind eye for decades to his brutal excesses and did absolutely nothing about it.

While America may have made a mistake by going into Iraq, the Arab world will at some point bear the shame of tolerating and supporting the dictator. History will not be kind to Arab leadership or the fabled 'Arab street' on the matter. History will judge us all on that matter.

History notwithstanding, we forgot one empirical truth-- 'democracy is paid for with the blood of patriots', to quote a shrewd observer. Democracy cannot be imposed on a nation or region whose citizens aren't willing to fight and die for it. In a country where a minority celebrates the death of liberators, yet tolerated by many more, the genuine appreciation of democracy is a long way off. Comparisons to the Allied liberation of Europe are undeserved. All over Nazi occupied Europe, the local resistance movements took on not only the Germans, but the collaborators as well. There is no such morality in Iraq or elsewhere in the region, for that matter.

Canada welcomed Americans crossing the border to enlist and fight fascism in two World Wars, in 1914 and 1939, long before the US entered those wars. Those Americans, like their Canadian sponsors, understood that there comes a time when freedom must be paid for in a currency other than the lofty words uttered by politicians. Canadians paid dearly for that moral clarity and can rightly take pride. There are no such volunteers to be found in Iraq today.

Indeed, the only ‘volunteers’ are from countries hostile to the new Iraq and the potential liberties she may bring to the region. Their sole purpose is to disrupt a free Iraq.

When asked, Iraqi's all say want to live better lives. In reality, they see the Coalition as being able to deliver the material goods (though not fast enough, of course). What they won't see, and remain unwilling to sacrifice for, is a better society. Until Iraqis are willing to pay for democracy, it will remain an elusive ideal.

Throughout the region much is made of the cultural distinctions between East and West and how Western style democracy won't work in the region. Even the word 'democracy' is derided as a Western (and therefore outside Arab/Islamic cultural norms) concept. This argument only serves the status quo and will ensure decades more of the same autocratic regimes. It is also an argument that is baseless.

Freedom can be defined by four ideas, none of which are antithetical to Arab/Islamic culture.

Freedom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom from want and freedom from fear. These are the underpinnings of every free society. For real reform to take hold, these ideals have to emerge. If Western style government is unappealing to the Arab world, so be it. The shape and form of a government is irrelevant as long as those four ideals are safeguarded.

Self-serving Arab ‘analysts’ and their sympathetic Western clones drone on about how democracy in the region will only serve Western interests. They completely ignore the reality that true freedoms will unlock long stifled Arab potential and stabilize a region too long on the brink of disaster.

What must remain avoided by many Arab and left wing pundits in political discussions are the realities that free societies don't go to war against each other. Free societies understand the detrimental effect war has on it's citizens. Free societies are economically successful societies with an unlimited potential.

To unlock true Arab power, real leadership will have to emerge. Real leaders are clearly differentiated from rulers. In free societies, leaders are defined by their commitment to a system of social justice and universally recognized civilized values. Rulers, on the other hand, are defined only by their desire to maintain power. Leaders understand the need for change, social or political. They have faith in a system that is self-correcting. Rulers must maintain the status quo, without regard to the welfare of their citizens. They see anything less than total control as a threat to their iron grip.

To underscore the point, even the education of the next generation is subservient to the needs of the Arab regimes. According to the recent UN report on education, Arabs ranked lowest in the world, save sub Saharan Africa. Given that there aren't many schools in sub Saharan Africa to begin with, the state of Arab education is poor, indeed. The results of this tragedy will play out in the Arab streets for decades, unless something drastic is done. It is clear current Arab state run education is an abysmal failure. It is also clear that reform is the best chance for change to occur. However, until there is a willingness at the grass roots level to support real change, even at a heavy cost, reform will remain nothing but a topic endlessly debated, and argued -- a mindless waste of time.

The Arab media would have us believe that the US and the West are 'anti Arab' or 'anti Muslim'. What they don't see from their state sanctioned isolated perches is that in reality, the US and the west are neither. We sacrificed US lives in defense of Bosnia and Somalia. Arabs and Muslims here have more freedom and opportunity than virtually anywhere else in the world. To say the Palestinian/Israel issue is at the heart of the issue is to deceive oneself. Israel is no more responsible for the state of Arab education than it is for the repression of reformers in many Arab countries, the dilapidated economies of regimes that still use old soviet style 'five year plans' or inter-religious strife and/or persecution in others.

What do the Arab world and the West really have in common at this point in time? Not much. The freedoms we have in the west are not so diametrically opposed to Islam or the Arab world, yet they don't exist. The will to demand these rights doesn't seem to exist, either. Therefore, we share little in terms of values. This is an important distinction -- we don't share much in common with many countries and cultures, save the values of freedom. Yet we share values that, over time, mature and refine.

It is a matter of choice. Until the Arab world chooses freedom and is willing to fight for it and not just pay lip service to these ideals, we will have very little in common. Westerners aren't 'anti Arab' or 'anti Islam'. We're pro freedom. The incessant droning of the 'war on Islam' and the like is nonsense. We don't care about anyone's faith or ethnicity. As stated earlier, the freedoms Muslims and Arabs enjoy in the West exceeds, for the most part, the rights enjoyed by Arabs and Muslims elsewhere. We do, however, care about our security. While we may at times question our presence elsewhere in the Middle East, the West will defend any assault on our homelands and our values.