But the point is that it is not our call on who they elect....

But the point is that it is not our call on who they elect. That's called democracy. It's their choice. And a lot of Westerners seem to think that being Shi'ite means being a fundamentalist. Shi'ite is a branch of Islam like Sephard versus Ashekenaz Jews or Catholics versys Protestant Christians. All six of these groups have their fundamentalists and their liberals and everything in between.

Given that Iraq was until 1990 the most advanced and best educated of the Arab communities, I don't think they will vote for the no-fun fundies (pardon the pun). But they might like the idea of a strong charismatic unifying leader.

Israel's only serious broadsheet daily Ha'aretz ran a great cartoon of the CIA in one box saying: What we need in Iraq is a strong leader and the other box had Saddam in his cell saying he was available.

Plus, he used to work for the CIA, so he can't be all bad can he?