Jonah Goldberg learned all the wrong lessons from Gen. Augusto Pinochet’s bloody rule in Chile, and he wants to give Iraq the same kind of strongman to pull it together.
Be careful what you wish for. That strongman might refuse to leave. We’d be starting all over again against an Iraqi police state.
To be fair, Goldberg seems to be arguing that an Iraqi Pinochet would be better than an Iraqi Fidel Castro. Point taken. But there is no need to make such a choice. Nouri al-Maliki is Iraq’s constitutionally elected prime minister, and he is firmly in favor of democracy. This is a good thing. Keep it.
Referendum for Iran. If any nation in the Middle East needs a Pinochet, it’s Iran. Pinochet allowed those yes-or-no referendums on his rule in 1978 and 1988, and after 55 percent of the voters said “no” in 1988, he allowed free elections and stepped aside.
Let’s put Iran’s “Supreme Leader” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (forget that puppet Ahmadinejad) up to a yes-or-no vote. That would be a revolution.
Frank Warner
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