I think Simon nails it when he compares the Civil Rights movement with the movement to bring Democracy to Iraq, and by extension the entire Middle East. Those of you too young to have been around in those days, let me relay one experience in the Old South. Fresh out of the service and just starting as an actor, four of us were driving down to an airbase in Georgia to do a show. We were in a car with Illinois plates and we got pulled over along with another car with Georgia plates. One of the cops ticketed the other car while the second hung back behind our car, hand on his gun. Once the first car had been ticketed the cop came toward us with his hand on his gun---after the witness pulled off---and he jerked open the driver side front door and demanded to know "what you nawthun pieces of shit are doin' down heah." We told him and he actually pulled out his gun, a revolver that allowed us to see the bullets, and ordered us to drive off the road and into the trees. I immediately said, "fuck you." The second cop came up and they ordered us out of the car at gun point and then they slammed us against the car and over the hood. One of them let us know that people from Illinois ought to be shot on sight and the second cop called another police car which showed up in ten minutes. They then charged us with speeding, reckless driving, suspicioun of drunk driving, resisting arrest, driving with a suspicious registration, impounded the car, and took us to jail in handcuffs. During the ride the cop in my car let us know what was going to happen to "niggah lovahs from up Nawth." When were being booked all of us demanded to talk to a lawyer, one of them punched me in the stomach, hard, and we were all told that this ain't the Nawth, boy. Only a piece of blind luck got us out. When we were late to the airbase the MPs started calling around to see if any police had found us. A super nasty guy came to our cell and let us go to "the commie airbase." When we told everyone what happened, they just shrugged and let is know that somebody should have told you to drive down here with "Virginia plates, at least." People from the North were being murdered, beaten, and jailed just because we might be making trouble----the trouble being voting rights for Blacks. Yes, Zarqawi is worse than the KKK in that mass murder is OK but his purpose is the same as the bad Old South leadership: scare anybody off who tries to change things. Of course we had numbers on our side, numbers that showed up. Iraqis have yet to show up. No matter what you hear, there was nothing romantic about the pre-1970 South.