Have the authors of these opeds...erm, have you ever read something about history of the Middle East?

I'm just asking out of curiosity. For example because when it comes to people there, I would say it was them who brought us the Bible, Qoran and few other things too (including maths, forks and spoons). In return, they've been separated into artificial states that never existed before, put under control of brutal and oppressive regimes imposed upon them - and which are wholeheartedly supported and protected by the West. And then, and just to make sure - they've then got an artificial enemy implanted into their centre too, which is blindly supported by the West no matter what it does or whom it hurts. When that was not enough, they've had their traditional cultural and religious centres been isolated and/or neutralized, and a solid foundation created for emergence of extremism - which otherwise could never grow, alone because the people in the Middle East were always considering it for 'provincialist' and 'idiotic'.

But 'we' are now ah-so-very-much-surprised the 'Arabs' don't accept this, and because this is so ah-so-very-much-surprising, wonder why 'we' can't 'civilize them'...?

Well, if your definition of 'civilizing people' is 'forcing them to subject themselves to our control and give up any semblance of sovereignty, no matter whether they like that or not'...

...you can wait 'till the hell freezes.