Re: Suicide bomb kills over 100 in Iraq
^ not even that. i think the oppressive arab dictatorships are also a modern phenomenon, pre-oil governments had pretty loose borders and dissipated tribal chiefs ruling over their little territories.
The pre oil period had lots of disspiated tribal chiefs ruling over little terrirtories across the globe. The advent of the modern nation state as the dominant form of government happens to coincide with this same period. So in order for nation states to be formed in the middle east, are you saying they wouldn't need oppressive central governments to keep all the tribal chiefs at bay if it weren't for oil?