"Dan White" wrote in
:

"Rob Mitchell" wrote in message
...

I don't believe that you can 'jumpstart' a democracy in the kind of
environment you have in Iraq, at least not one that is favourable to
the US. I think you will be tied down in Iraq for many years, and in
the end another dictator, as bad as Saddam will be brought in, and
all the while, N. Korea will be making 8 A-bombs/year, or so I've
heard. (according to Professor Graham Allison of Harvard -the number
may not be accurate, who really knows.)


History may not support your guess. Look at Italy, Germany and Japan
after WW2. People said the exact same thing about those places, and
look at them now. I think we were in Japan for 7 years, and people
said they were basically unable to support a democracy. I don't see a
reason for your extremely negative spin on the potential outcome in
Iraq other than sour grapes. If some form of democracy and real peace
comes out of Iraq the skeptics will have nothing left to complain
about. I'd say that so far Iraq is on track. I don't know the final
outcome, either, but I see no reason to conclude that the effort is
sure to fail. But, you are entitled to your opinion of course.

"Eighteen months after we occupied Germany, the nation was de-Nazified and
pacified. Eighteen months after we occupied Iraq, Islamic fundamentalism is
on the rise and, as Colin Powell now concedes, "We are fighting an intense
insurgency [and] .... it’s getting worse." -- Pat Buchanan, The American
Conservative Magazine, Oct 25 2004.

Looks like conservatives like Pat Buchanan are also putting forth an
extremely negative spin that must be sour grapes.