I'm in Baghdad, Iraq and I've just spent 2 days at seminars on democracy that I arranged with a couple of friends. As I'm immersed in this subject right now and as I was terribly moved watching the rapt attention my Iraqi friends gave to the democracy consultant that came here to help, I can't help responding to your article on George Bush with a resounding: Why on earth are we talking about a person like George Bush? How could anyone like Mr. Bush get elected in an intelligent so-called advanced country? Once elected by an undemocratic 20% of the population of the US, how could he stay in office after breaching international law, thumbing his and the American people's noses at the international community and UN, attacking a country that he's already carefully rendered helpless with the worst arsenal of military might known to the planet, lied to his own people repeatedly etc.? Why is this planet taking a buffoon like George Bush seriously and why hasn't he been turfed out of the White House for wrecking just about every glimmer of civilized structure the US has built up over centuries? Why does the US want to rule the world when they have so many unresolved problems? Why isn't the US a democracy? And, why are the newspapers carrying on as if the discourse is about whether or not George Bush lied? We all knew he was lying before the invasion of Iraq. We all knew the invasion was illegal and a disgrace. We all knew we were sacrificing thousands of innocent lives to keep up a pathetic pretense for people like George Bush and his cronies and the people who live off his system.  Why can't we read about real stories, like 'what happened to democracy and why our species isn't doing it' or 'what's so satisfying about plutocracy in the west?' etc. etc. etc.??

When you're standing outside in the baking sun in the dust, trying to get into old King Bremer's Palace in Baghdad, where the generator never stops and the water's clean, and you're being treated like an enemy for having the nerve to show up but you can't not show up because there's not much you can do in this town with the CPA getting in on the act, you wonder how anyone could give a single thought to someone as devoid of statemanship and humanity as Bush.

Sallam,
Stefa Shaler
Al-Safeer Hotel, Abu Nawas Street, Baghdad, Iraq