The Doha Debates

I'm not sure how popular the Doha Debates is in the West, but BBC does the entire coverage on it. Last night, I watched the debate on the motion: "This House believes only a new dictator can end the violence in Iraq".
I only watched it because George Galloway was one of the debaters. However, in his own words, his views ended up being misrepresented. He made a few very good points, about Hugo Chavez being the leader elected by the government of Venezuela time and again despite the US, the CIA, .. but the rest of his energy was wasted in defending his views.
At one point he even said: "you do not know me well enough if you're saying I support the US."

It made me reflect on how people like him, Noam Chompsky, Tariq Ramadan and others really have their feet in quicksand, for the views they hold publically. "
The motion was rejected, the audience vote against it was 67%.

The next debate topic is: "This House believes the veil is a barrier to integration ". I'd love to go. Admission is free!

Adnan Pachachi, former President of the Iraq Governing Council, blamed occupying forces for the sectarian violence in Iraq during the latest Doha Debate on January 31. "The vast majority of Iraqis are not involved in sectarian violence, they want to live in peace. Militias act in the name of a sect. I blame this on the occupying power, which established a system based on division," he said.
Mr. Pachachi was arguing against the motion: This House believes only a new dictator can end the violence in Iraq.
He won the Debate with co-speaker British parliamentarian George Galloway. The audience backed their call to support democracy and reject a dictator by a majority of two to one.
Arguing for the motion were Sabah Al-Mukhtar, President of the Arab Lawyers Association in the UK, and Robert Baer, a former CIA officer who served for 20 years in the Middle East.