While I can understand those calling for the removal of Yasser Arafat (read the case against him and the PA by Edward Said) the problem is - in this fluid world of democracy, neo-democracy, guided democracy and that wonderful contradiction in terms enforced democracy - that Arafat is the democractically elected leader of the Palestinians in supervised elections.
Arafat has greater democratic support (I think he got about 60% of the 90+% turnout vote) than Bush Blair and Sharon, all three of whom had between 30% and 40% of their electorates.
At least in Australia with REAL democracy (I support compulsory voting because it makes people think about politics for five minutes once every three or four years) if you don't like Prime Minister Honest John Maggott - and clearly I do not - at least we know we have to convince 50,000 people to change their minds. I don't like Howard, but he IS my democratically elected representative. The same cannot be said for Bush Blair or Sharon, which brings me to Saddam.
In Berlin attending an Anti-Fascist rally of some 100,000 Germans back in about 1990 (the new Nazi targets were Turks and Vietnamese and East Germans) I asked my Munich-born friend Christian: If Hitler came back todau, could he be re-elected. The answer was chilling: The German people never voted him out of office.
Out of idle curiosity (okay, mendacious curioisity) what would happen in Iraq were Saddam - in jail or not - to stand for election?
