Democracy in the Middle East? What a good idea. Yes, sometimes the results appear to be bad news, but we haven't got a huge number of elections to go on.

Excluding Turkey and Israel, the only places in the middle east to have held anywhere near free and fair elections are Iraq, Afganistan, and now Palestine. Ideal test cases really!

Now, given the rampant sucess of current govements in the area at controlling terrorism, finding employment for their people, educating them, etc....., how much worse can a Goverment throw up by an election be?

This may be a triumph of optimism over experience, but the people of the region know about Iran, and they can see that a theocracy doesn't solve everything....



and GUEST, 3.16, get a name, then you'll get replies.