>"The irony is that people like Sistani and Sadr would, if Saddam were in power, be in exile, under arrest, or dead. "

Good! Then they wouldn't be causing us so much trouble now with parts of their countrymen killing Americans! Sadam had his country under control. And if remember correctly; we helped him with the weapons and the chemicals. What we have done is just gone in and stirred up an endless hornets' nest.

At least Sadam kept the nests under control for us. It was a lot cheaper for us too, and didn't threaten pulling the world into another worl war. (You may say this is not happening, and it isn't.......yet)
But Bush has the whole Muslim world "Bringing it on".
It won't be long before something major happens, unless we all change our ways.