Impressive qualifications of Middle East leaders. I don't know why but this occurred to me today: The Mauritanian dictator was the chief of the secret police, as was the Tunisian dictator. The Libyan leader was an officer in the Libyan army, while Husni Mubarak was chief of the air force. The Sudanese military dictator also was a military officer. The Algerian president handled foreign intelligence (and affairs) under Bumadyan while serving as foreign minister. The Dubai Amir was chief of police while the leader of UAE was minister of defense. Qabus of Oman is a graduate of a military academy as is the King of Jordan (who was given a private praetorian army by his father--how sweet). The Syrian leader--I am talking about Bashshar's brother-in-law of course, Asaf Shawkat--is head of the intelligence apparatus. The Yemeni leader also came from the military, and the Lebanese president was commander of the mighty Lebanese Army. The Emir of Qatar was Minister of Defense, while the King of Bahrain attended military academies in US and UK. Ariel Sharon was an Israeli general, his predecessor was former chief-of-staff of the Israeli army, while his predecessor served in an "elite" Israeli fighting force, and his predecessor was secretary-general of the Defense Ministry (who was in charge of the Israeli nuclear program), and his predecessor in the job of prime minister was also a chief-of-staff of the Israeli army. As for the Palestinian president, Abu Mazen: he was nothing, and will always be nothing--unless you count his early stint as an anti-Semitic polemicist/holocaust denier as a job. And Lebanese prime minister, Fu'ad Sanyurah, is a professionally trained cry-baby.