Baby steps ...

from Slate

The Inalienable Right To Screw Up Your CountryAnd the joy of finding a leader who can help bring it back together again. By Christopher Hitchens Posted Monday, Sept. 19, 2005, at 10:54 AM PT

"... It was quite amazing to meet President Jalal Talabani, the country's first elected president, last week. His patience and good humor are extraordinary. What he likes about the new constitution, for example, is that nobody very much likes it—proof that no faction or section, including his own native Kurdistan, is in a position to crow about victory. Talabani is much more than a regional politician: He's an old lion in his 70s who was well-known in Arab and nationalist and intellectual circles when Gamal Abdel Nasser was still alive ...."

and not ...

"... Gangs of ruffians and blackmailers roam Gaza unchecked, and even tolerated, and prey upon their fellows. Clerical extremist parties flourish their banners and mouth fearsome oaths and slogans. The promise to respect the border with Egypt is void, and smugglers and mobsters laugh at the authorities. So, now how do you like your Palestinian state?"