With the death of Yasser Arafat (this time we mean it!), world leaders are trying their damnest to pretend the man wasn't a murderous terrorist:

French President Jacques Chirac, confirming Yasser Arafat’s death, has hailed the Palestinian leader as a man of courage and conviction who embodied the Palestinian struggle for a state.

“It is with emotion that I have just learnt of the death of President Yasser Arafat, the first elected president of the Palestinian Authority,” Chirac said in a written statement on Thursday. “I offer my very sincere condolences to his family and to people close to him.”

Oddly enough, you have to look to the Palestinians for a truthful picture of who their leader was.

Palestinian refugees took to the streets of the Arab world Thursday to mourn Yasser Arafat, firing shots into the air, burning American and Israeli flags, and shedding tears for the man who was the symbol of their struggle for statehood. In a Jordanian camp, barefoot boys brandished toy machine guns.

Arafat dies and the reaction of his followers is to fire guns, burn flags and give their children toy machine guns. Isn't that precious? Doesn't that more clearly show what kind of leader Arafat was? When Ronald Reagan died, Americans remembered his words and deeds and perhaps lit candles in his honor. We didn't "mourn" him by sending a few missiles to Moscow or roughing up Teddy Kennedy. His words and deeds inspired hope and strength, not violence.

Arafat was nothing more than a murderous thug. His words and deeds inspire thousands more to murder and thuggery. So, it's only appropriate he's mourned the way he lived.

At Ein el-Hilweh, near the southern city of Sidon, demonstrators burned tires and fired shots in the air to express frustration and sadness. Later, crowds swelled the narrow streets, waving Arafat's pictures and chanting: "Our soul and blood, we sacrifice for you."

Great leaders inspire others to great deeds. Arafat inspires others to suicide bombings. All I can say is good riddance.