A lot of what's happening in Iraq and in the middle east today
is LOST IN TRANSLATION.
The Insurgents admit to being ANTI-DEMOCRACY, and are thus thought to have at last "exposed" themselves as being "truly evil." (See most of what Brooks has been blathering on about lately in the NYTs.)
But, democracy has many meanings. To the American "founding fathers" democracy was a formula for "mob rule," Hence we still have the Electoral College today.
To many Muslims democracy means the rule of man, Not God! Like some American Evangelicals many Muslims trust in God first, and the works of man second, or even last or not at all.
The point is that Dubya & Co are cross-culturally tone-deaf. The Neocons won't be happy till everyone is eating an American Happy Meal, and proclaiming Sharon to be a "man of peace" and the Palestinian Insurgents "evil"
......even if they have to be force fed at every point!
So it is quite possible that what the Shia and Sistani did in the recent election was: Give Dubya the Purple Finger!
Postscript: And as Friedman well knows, when traveling in a foreign country it's best to know the meaning of the local "obscene hand gestures."
