Bernard Lewis in the National Post, arguing that Saddam-style despotism is

a Western import. With all respect to Lewis, I’m not so sure about his

contention that “the peoples of the Muslim

Middle East have a tradition of limited, responsible government. While not

democratic, this tradition shares many features of democratic Western

governments…” Well, yes. Traditional Arab despotism was not

totalitarian, because it didn’t have the resources to be. Totalitarianism

is a modern invention. It was still despotism, though, and the “many

features” that it “shared” with Western democracy were not much noticed by

traveleres like Alexander Kinglake.