Richard, the camel and the democratically chosen dictatorship

Submitted by A Mendelson (South Africa), Mar 3, 2004 at 09:29

I cannot help but here the words of "Malagant" former knight of king Arthur's court as he faces down Richard Gere in his role as "Lancelot" in the Movie "First Knight":

"This is what Arthur does not understand" he snarls as he abuses one of his flunkies "... people do not want democracy... they want leadership".

I actually thought the movie was a little to long and i have a sneaking suspicion that my wife enjoys any movie with Richard Gere in it! Be that as it may it does present an interesting question... what do the Iraqi people want? Firstly, and secondly if they want to go back to a dictatorial leadership what precisely can the rest of the world do about it?

I think its presumptuous of the Americans and the so called civilised West to assume that they know what's best for the Iraqi people. And even if they do, you can lead the camel to the oasis but you certainly cannot make him drink.

If Militant Islam is what the majority of Arabs in the Middle East want then so be it. We don't have to like it and please God the world will open up its eyes and understand precisely what that means but if that's what they want... so be it.

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