Has Ahmadinejad lost his global following? | csmonitor.com

Has Ahmadinejad lost his global following? | csmonitor.com: "But will fiery rhetoric be enough? For Arabs, Mr. Abdel Fattah says Ahmadinejad's words may not carry the punch they used to because the public reaction to Iran's crackdown has 'generally not been positive.'

'People can see now that Iran has the same authoritarian political systems as the Arab world,' he says. 'Ahmadinejad is not a hero.'"

ME: While I would be lying to say that I think Iraq was fought to bring democracy to the Middle East, there is no doubt that the forging of a fledgling democracy in Iraq has led to the desire for more in places like Lebanon and Iran -- if the Iraqis can have free choice, democracy and the semblance of personal liberty, why shouldn't the Iranians. And when the Iranians deny it to their people by force, they lose their international legitimacy.
Was Iraq worth it? That is a fair thing to debate, but the international press and pundits should be discussing Iran in this light. Instead, the demonization of Bush and the US has foreclosed this debate.