A Benevolent Dictator with an

A Benevolent Dictator with an Eye for Democracy

While we're on the topic of Iraq, Daniel Pipes, one of my favorite Catholic political commentators, posts an excellent piece over on Catholic Exchange. The title of the piece is: Needed: An Iraqi Strongman. I can agree with what he's saying, namely, that the UK and US have a difficult balancing act to perform in Iraq now that will take years if they want to see democracy succeed there. I first came to this conclusion while studying canon law at Saint Paul University. Opus Dei had a residence for male college students near the university, and would often host these lively evening lectures on various topics. The topic one evening turned to Iraq, and we got an insider's view to the whole situation as one of the student-residents was a Muslim from one of the Middle-East countries bordering on Iraq. He basically said the same thing as Pipes is now saying, namely, given the culture of the Middle-East, a strongman is needed to maintain control of any country.