[widebody911]

Originally posted by cmccuist
And Wide, what's wrong with democracy at the barrel of a gun? Worked for the US!

No, there was no 3rd-party nation that forced us to become a democracy. It was done from within. If somoene puts a gun to your head and a Koran in your hand, does that make you a Muslim?

I don't think this is a sham democracy that we're seeing. The people who were elected weren't all Baathists, but Shi'ites and Kurds, secularists and religeous. The election was a success because the results were not one party!

Whether it was a true success remains to be seen. It appears that everyone voted for their local tribal leaders; success will be whether they are able to sustain the process on their own without the life support system of US intervention. With the construction of 13 US bases in Iraq, that's not going to happen any time soon.

Hopefully, this thing will spread across the ME to Africa (Libya, Algeria are more democratic now than before 2001) (more democratic? that's about as nebulous as 'more gay') and then to China and North Korea.

Bartender! I'll have what he's having, and make it a double!