If Iraq's about democracy, let's do the job right

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

WASHINGTON — Let's agree that President Bush's vision of democracy in Iraq is appealing, even inspiring.

"A free Iraq will stand as an example to reformers across the Middle East," Bush said in his opening remarks at Tuesday's news conference. "A free Iraq will show that America is on the side of Muslims who wish to live in peace."

True, Bush's primary case for war was not that a free Iraq would be a beacon to the Muslim world, but that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. If Bush had tried to sell this primarily as a war on behalf of a grand vision of Middle Eastern democracy, most Americans would have balked.

Still, give Bush the benefit of the doubt. No matter what the president said before the war, spreading democracy is a good thing. But you had better make it work.

Unfortunately, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had his own pet theory. American military power is so impressive, he insisted, that we can now win wars with fewer troops — far fewer than Colin Powell demanded in 1991 for throwing Iraqi forces out of Kuwait.

-more-

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2001904478_dionne16.html

[OneBlueSky]

1. Iraq was never about democracy . . .

in fact, the LAST thing BushCo would want in Iraq is real democracy, because they'd probably form an Islamic government of some kind . . . Iraq is, was, and always has been about 1) oil, and 2) establishing a permanent American military presence in the region . . . that's all . . .