"Democratically-minded"?

Reader comment on item: The Roots of Iraq's Rebellion

Submitted by Melvin A. Fechter (United States), Apr 14, 2004 at 22:56

Please explain what you mean by a "democratically-minded Iraqi strongman, someone who will work with the coalition forces, provide decent government, and move eventually toward a more open political system."

Does Pervez Musharraf qualify under that definition?

Doesn't the language conflict with language in the preceding paragraph: "However constructive its intentions to build democracy, the coalition cannot win the confidence of Muslim Iraq...."

Melvin A. Fechter

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".

Daniel Pipes replies:

Pervez Musharraf is a poor version of what I am thinking of, but he's roughly the model, yes