I have very different political views from Keith, but I certainly have never seen him receive " a hiding" at your hands...or anyone else's for that matter.

The Arab Spring?....get real, these people don't want, or need Western style "democracy".
Just look at Iraq, Libya, Egypt.....are you blind?

Right at the beginning I said Egypt would be the template and what have we got as an alternative to "democracy"?
An elected govt(which the West didn't like) overthrown by a military coup, hundreds of civilian demonstrators shot in cold blood, all political opposition criminalised, jailed, tortured.
And this military regime receives aid and arms from the West, without a word about missile strikes or UN resolutions.

You may be blind Jim, but cant you SMELL the hypocrisy?