: Name a true regime of that sort with real popular support. Should be
: simple, right?
:
: Well, a lot of it depends on what you mean by totalitarian. Some
: people would call Iran that, but the government enjoys a fair amount
: of support, and even many of those who dislike it don't do so enough
: to cooperate with a U.S. invasion.

: "Support" and "fear" are two very different things. And the question in
: Iran isn't how much do the people support the government (not as
: strongly as you'd think) but how much do they fear everything else (a
: lot, due to years of internal propaganda)?

While Iran is not exactly sparkling with freedom, it is one of the
more democratic nations in the Middle East. Indeed, that is one reason the
US fears it so. If it were not for totalitarian rulers resisting popular
will, nations like Egypt and Saudi Arabia would be *very* anti-US. I would
suggest that widespread support for the Iranian government is much stronger
than you imply, though there are certainly those who want to see it
modified. In particular, even a lot of those who dislike heavy handed
social regulation still support an anti- or at best neutral stance towards
the U.S.
You realize, of course, that Iran is a democracy? Power is split
between the more 'secular' legislative and the more religious 'judicial/
executive' portions, but even the Ayatollah is elected (albeit indirectly,
just as the US used to do with State Senators). Lifetime appointment can
be a bitch, but just ask a critic of our Supreme Court about that.


: China is another example where many of the citizens support the
: government, and while the government is authoritarian, I wouldn't call
: it totalitarian in the Hussein mode, but it might be coming into
: conflict with the U.S. at some point.

: China has been going in the opposite direction from totalitarianism,
: because the government has figured out that they could do better by
: opening up than by closing down.

I don't think this is quite so. China is rapidly evolving its
economy, but politically retains very oligarchal. I think a better model
for China is "totalitarian capitalism", like that practiced by Nazi Germany.
Relatively great economic freedom combined with extreme government power,
often used to support "a strong economy". For all is faults, Nazi Germany
had quite an economic turnaround and did some pretty amazing things with
regards to economy and production before and during WWII. It is a somewhat
sobering analogy -- Nazi leadership (and complicity by the 'conservative'
business class) took Germany from ashes and poverty to World Power -- if
only right into a destructive war.

regards,
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