[Shaun @ Tru6]

Quick background: libertarian, fiscally conservative, socially liberal, education is the silver bullet, I like guns, the death penalty (for murder and rape), would rather see a culture of adoption than one of abortion, government should stay out of our personal lives, but a safety net is important, blah, blah, blah.

That said, I am really against the welfare system, mainly because it propagates cycles (poverty, need, expectation, abuse) rather than breaks them. The end game is that when you don't work for something, when it's just given to you, you'll never appreciate it, you'll never understand achievement, you'll never learn anything and be able to take those skills to modify them to tackle new challenges. Entitlement programs are poorly designed to make you FEEL like you are one thing, but don't give you the tools to actually BE that thing.

So I've been thinking about the Democratization of Iraq, and quite honestly, I think it very well could be the great entitlement program of them all.

The U.S. Military is doing ALL the heavy lifting, taking 90% of the risks, suffering a vast majority of the deaths, and the MIC is doing all the rebuilding. In short, Americans are dying so Iraqi's can have a better life. A noble cause to be sure, and one of the reasons I've been against the war from the beginning, but I don't think Iraqi's are learning the true meaning of owning their country. They simply can't.

Iraq is sort of like democracy with U.S. training wheels. All the appearances of riding a bike are there, but you are limited, safe, constrained, slow, clumsy. Until you take them off and risk a skinned knee will you really know the freedom of pedaling ecstatically, twisting and turning down the road in front of you.