Writing came form these old 'barbaric' civilizations, as did many other things necessary for civilization to exist. The Hammurabi code is the first law to exist, when Europeans where still rolling around in the dirt. It also had some wonderful laws, still used today, concerning marriage etc.

And Egypt had great choke points, with the Sinai on the one side, and the Sahara on the other, and this was a great civilization, one that the Greeks often said is the forerunner to their own.

But of course Righty, this does not count.

According to you, I guess the first true civilization was built by Republicans!

__________________
“The subject no longer has to be mentioned by name. Someone is sick. Someone else is feeling better now. A friend has just gone back into the hospital. Another has died. The unspoken name, of course, is AIDS.”
“From the point of view of the pharmaceutical industry, the AIDS problem has already been solved. After all, we already have a drug which can be sold at the incredible price of $8, 000 an annual dose, and which has the added virtue of not diminishing the market by actually curing anyone.”