There is a tribal element, but a slightly different (and more important issue) is the Bedouin element. Tribalism has existed in most of the world. You look at a country like England. Until the Romans left, it was a fairly tribal society, as was France, as was even Venice. But that was not necessarily an obstruction to the development of humanistic ideas and human values.

But Bedouinism, as opposed to tribalism, is the existence of a system of allegiance to a family or tribe in an environment that is arid and rather uncomplicated, compared to the urban centres, and in which either someone was your friend or your enemy. You existed in a state of all-out war, and there was a presumption that someone was out to get you until proven otherwise. You needed a military-type structure that needed a leader who could not be questioned. The environment was often a mentality of black and white or yes and no, not the cultured mentality of the arts and sciences and humanities and of philosophy and contemplation. The Quran itself is quite critical of Bedouin society, and speaks about the immoderate nature of those who remain with a Bedouin mentality.

Pressfield writes in his piece that when we Americans declared in essence to the Iraqis, "Here, folks, you're free now; set up your own government," they looked at us as if we were crazy. The tribal mind doesn't want freedom; it wants security. Order. It wants a new boss. The Iraqis lost all respect for us then. They saw us as naive, as fools. They saw that we could be beaten. The tribe is a warrior; its foundation is warrior pride.

And that spells out for us exactly what we need to be doing in Iraq instead of whimpering at home like whipped puppies, as the Democratic leadership would have us do. We need to be warriors, finish this damned thing as warriors, wrap it up as warriors, and then come home with pride. It will pay huge dividends for us in the Islamic world, where the only thing they respect is power, and the mullahs who control them.

In closing, let's not forget that fundamentalist Islam is indeed the enemy in the global war on terror, although, as discussed here, tribalism does indeed play a huge role, especially in Iraq.