Lessons of Saddam a wake-up call for Middle East despots

IN AN Arab world where democracy is a rarity, entrenched leaders are faced with the image of Saddam Hussein in captivity, his power shrunken to myth, his bravado gone.

It’s a sobering picture for Arab rulers whose authority is based on might, not on the consent of their people.

As the picture of a weary, addled Saddam began sinking in today, political analysts and commentators raised the question of whether other Middle East leaders would learn from the downfall of the Iraqi dictator or persist in their old, despotic ways.