Valuable topic and valuable thoughts. On the point above, for some reason many people are repulsed by weakness. I don't know if it's culture or instinct. With these people, when a leader hits a weak patch, he is a wounded animal to be sent to the back of the pack, rather than returned to the front of the pack. This seems like a major theme in Middle East politics -- "strong" seems to be a constantly necessary predicate of a leader.