lh. ONe point, the Japanese were not all that crazy for the American style constitution - in fact they were in complete shock when it was presented to them. I lived in Japan in 1990-91 in fact I watched the GUlf war over there, and believe it oor not - if you peeled away the layers of the society there is still a lot of resentment of America, especially by the older generation who lived through the war. Of course you get all extremes, there are groups that believe the Emperor is a GOd and there are others that would like to kill him. In the long run they have since come to accept and enjoy the democratic system but I dont think they jumped on it right away.

If youve never had democracy you dont really know what youre missing.

WHich makes me wonder what the Middle Eastern countries would be like if you allowed free elections (certainly the freely elected government in Algeria was overthrown even though the rebels that fight against the current govt. are extreme Islamists. I still believe that an unknown factor is the anti-Islamic backlash within those countries, especially Iran. I knew an Iranian working in Japan who said the greatest danger to the Iranian govt is the young population that is tired of living under the extreme religious rules and would prefer the western lifestyle.