Seriously, Joel, I don't want to be insulting, but could you just do some background reading and investigating about the country in question before making statements like that? Lebanon HAS women in bikini, and has had them for a long time. Sure, the most liberated women are generally Christian ones, but when you know Hezbollah's current government only exists by the grace of their Christian allies, you realize that things are not so simple, and that it isn't "Christians vs. Muslims" by any means.

And Syria, too, actually ranks among the most secular countries in the Middle East - among the safest to walk around in for lone travelers, male or female, as well. Yes, the Syrian government has strong ties to Hezbollah, but that doesn't mean it's Islamist.

And since you mention "imposing Sharia law", allow me to debunk the view a lot of people - certainly not just you - seem to have of that issue. They seem to think that either one has "Sharia law" in a country, or one does not, as if a country can switch from a completely Sharia-based law system to a completely non-Sharia-based one just like that. That's a fairly silly view, as I'm sure you can see. It's not as if there is even a single all-encompassing Sharia system that you could impose. There are religious laws on a huge number of issues that are called "Sharia" - on some issues there is more or less consensus, on others there are several different mutually exclusive views. But in all of the countries of the Middle East and the rest of the Islamic world, the law system is based on a number of influences, among which Sharia is merely one.

Obviously if Islamists take over a country, like they did in Iran, they can base more and more laws on the Sharia, which is presumably what you meant, but to talk of "imposing Sharia law" like you'd talk of "imposing martial law" makes no sense.

What nonsense. These popular uprisings are all occurring in dictatorships and aimed at said dictatorships. Of course there are different views among the protesters about what kind of government there should be instead, but making blanket statements like that about them "viewing democracy with disgust" is ridiculous. Some of those protesters - more in some countries than in others, no doubt - are liberal even by Western standards, and don't view any "Western values" with disgust, or it'd have to be the "value" of supporting dictatorships for reasons of Realpolitik. Some are radical Islamists who do indeed say that they don't want democracy. And the majority, as usual, is somewhere in between - wanting democracy, and freedom, but not necessarily in the American or European style.

Is your memory so short? Have you already forgotten what happened in Iran just a few years ago? There are various reasons why it's more successful in Tunisia and possibly in Egypt than it was in Iran, but you can't close your eyes to the desire of a large part of the Iranian people to have a free democracy.