Tribes in the Mideast

I read an essay the other day which I have been thinking about quite a bit. The problem is I can't find it now and don't even remember who wrote it so I can provide attribution. The point of it was to advance the premise that our attempts to bring democracy to Iraq is really a steep climb because these people are not constitutionally able to embrace it. His analysis was based on the historic reliance by these people on tribal society. He went all the way back to Alexander the Great, but the bottom line is these people are more comfortable with a tribal structure where they know their place and can rely on the fact that the others in the tribe will support them in all of life's endeavors from jobs to marriage to conflicts with others. Democracy requires more individual activity than these people with centuries of tribal loyalties can excercise. They need a strong man to rally around (like Saddam) and democracy as we know it does not encourage that. One General asked a tribal sheik what the U.S. military needed to do right after taking over Iraq. He was told to start reconstruction activity and get out as many pictures of George Bush as they could for the Iraqis to rally around. I am afraid the sheik was right and our go nice approach is doomed to a long insurgency conflict.