In the American specialy manufactured form of "democracy" which is presently being implemeted in Iraq, one must understand,- in this form of "democracy", the government is appointed by a Foreign Government, which determines "what is best for the people".

Maybe its time the US dictionary was re-written...
change it from:

Democracy - Government by the people, exercised either directly or through elected representatives.

to the following:

Democracy - A foreign Government 'created' by the USA, for the "good of the people in the foreign land"

The last sentence is so my favourite, that I had to repeat it...

I forget where I read it. However I recall it being said that the US government would uphold the status quo in Iraq so that it can easily maintain control . . .

By your reasoning, we should not have denazified German and Austria after WWII because the National Socialist regime was a democratically elected government.

Right now we are denazifing Iraq of the Baath-Socialist party. Thats a good thing.

That was such an obvious answer it was nearly too easy Six.
Again, well spoken.

It states that he was an Iraqi exile, I doubt that he was a despot or terrorist trying to create more violence in the country. The US forces ousted him before it could even be seen what kind of effect he would have.

Bah.... I was just talking to a native Kurd yesterday who just the day before hd spoken to his relatives in Iraq...... speaking to them alone is an amazing thing.... he said that they are doing far better now than ever before..... the US troops there have far more support than the media plays out.....

The Associated Press

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- The U.S. military asserted its authority over Baghdad on Sunday, arresting an Iraqi exile for proclaiming himself the city's mayor without any mandate from its occupiers.

The arrest of Mohammed Mohsen al-Zubaidi came as reconstruction officials met with top deputies from Baghdad's former city government to begin sorting out how to restart critical services like water, electricity and garbage pickups.

Efforts to shore up the peace advanced despite the backdrop of persistent war; Central Command announced preliminary tests indicated a 55-gallon drum found with others near the northern Iraqi town of Baiji contained a mixture of nerve and blister agents.

And Lt. Gen. Hossam Mohammed Amin -- chief Iraqi liaison with U.N. weapons inspectors. No. 49 on the U.S. list of the 55 most-wanted figures from Saddam Hussein's regime -- turned himself in to the Army's 101st Airborne Division in Mosul.

Sporadic violence continued. Four U.S. soldiers were injured, one seriously, when their two Humvees were ambushed Sunday by an assailant with a gun in downtown Baghdad.

On Saturday, one U.S. soldier was killed and a second injured Saturday when two Bradley fighting vehicles rolled over at a checkpoint that had come under enemy fire in the northern city of Tikrit.

Al-Zubaidi's arrest was part of the American efforts to bring order to a country that still lacked it. Al-Zubaidi had said he was volunteering to help Iraq get back on its feet, and despite fervent denials from American military authorities he did not discourage the belief that he was appointed by the coalition.

He was arrested with seven others, U.S. military spokesman Capt. David Connolly said, "for his inability to support the coalition military authority and for exercising authority which was not his."

The actual mayor, a political appointee, "obviously has fled," said Keith Schollum, an aide in the U.S.-led Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance run by retired Lt. Gen. Jay Garner.

Schollum said ORHA officials were meeting with 10 Iraqi officials, including the old city government's deputy mayor for technical services and deputy mayor for administration.

"We need to get control of waste disposal, get water and sewage going. We need to get things going again," he said.

Schollum said ORHA began paying some municipal workers in U.S. dollars Saturday. He said the ORHA team hopes that municipal workers might begin picking up the city's huge accumulations of garbage as early as Monday.

After the meeting, Garner deputy Barbara Bodine said an "emerging leadership" for Iraq should begin to appear at a major meeting of political factions on Monday in Baghdad. She said the session should be much more representative than the first such meeting April 15 in the southern city of Ur.

The first such meeting, April 15, came just a week after U.S. forces took control of Baghdad and toppled Saddam's ruling Baath Party government. Fewer than 100 representatives of Iraqi opposition groups attended, and some groups boycotted in protest of U.S. influence over the process.

Between 300 and 400 representatives of political organizations and interest groups are expected to take part in the all-day meeting Monday, Bodine said.

She would not say exactly who was attending or whether groups that boycotted the previous meeting, particularly the Iran-based Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, would show up.

She did say one of those invited was Ahmad Chalabi, an Iraqi opposition figure who is widely viewed as the Pentagon's choice to be Iraq's interim president. In an interview on "Fox News Sunday," Chalabi said he had not decided whether to attend Monday's meeting. He sent representatives to the session in Ur.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said, meanwhile, U.S. troops would stay in Iraq and Afghanistan until those countries are stable and democratic governments have taken control.

Rumsfeld flew to the Gulf region and, along with Gen. Tommy Franks, the commander of the Iraq war, held talks Sunday with top officials from the United Arab Emirates.

Rumsfeld was in the region to meet with U.S. troops involved in the war in Iraq and discuss America's role in postwar Iraq. He has said the United States is considering reducing its presence in the Persian Gulf now that the threat from Iraq is over.

Rumsfeld also plans to visit American troops and government officials in Afghanistan later this week.

Anger and anti-American sentiment flared white hot Saturday after a U.S.-held weapons cache laden with 80 Iraqi missiles exploded on the edge of Baghdad, killing at least six people and showering homes for miles around with warheads, rockets and mortars.

The U.S. military blamed unknown attackers who they said fired four flares into the sprawling open missile dump. But hundreds of enraged, screaming Iraqis blamed Iraq's new American overseers. Wailing women collapsed over the coffins of two adults and four teenagers.

"No Saddam! No Bush! Yes to Islam!" fist-waving men shouted. The disaster touched off protests in the stricken Zafaraniyah neighborhood and in the city center. Residents near the blast fired on U.S. troops trying to help the wounded, briefly driving the soldiers from the scene.

An American soldier suffered a broken arm in the attack. The New York Times, quoting an anonymous U.S. military official, said the Iraqi toll could go much higher.

U.S. Central Command spokesman Lt. Mark Kitchens blamed "despicable people" for allegedly firing the flares.

A much more balanced view of important facts IMO. Democracy is not proclaiming yourself an appointment.

Quite. You can't appoint yourself mayor, and you can't cry tyranny when self-appointed mayors get arrested for causing trouble.