>>>Suggesting that this is not a significant victory for the US, Iraq, Great Britain and all of western democracy, is pessimism at its best and dellusional at its worst.
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>>No doubt it's significant for them. But is it significant per se? What if those guys don't have a leader cult like the West has?
>
>"...leader cult like the West has?"
>
>I don't believe we go dancing in the streets holding up signs of our leaders, chanting "The American infidel must die!" If anyone has a leader cult, it would be the Middle East.

Try to count how many times you hear the word "leadership", in a single week.

It's cultivated from the kindergarten up. I've heard it more times in my kids' schools here than I've heard it in all of my previous life.

And I should be sensitive to it - historically, Serbs have always suffered from this malady, except durung the socialism. With Miloshevich, it has returned with a vengeance, to the point where only two political parties had the balls to have elect someone who is not their eternal leader. All other parties are better known by their top guys than by what they stand for. Most of the time it's easier to split the party than to change a leader.

As for the Middle East's cult of leaders, they may have the leaders, and these leaders may try to establish a personality cult, just to boost their own importance (Saddam surely did), but that's not the leadership cult. Their leaders are easy come - easy go. They don't seem to fall into chaos when the king is ill. The next one in line is always ready, as (un)important as the previous one.