Peter K. later wrote:
> I know this annoys the hell out of people, but
> Germany and Japan and Italy -- Afghanistan --
> were "democratized with bombs."
Peter, I think you're seriously misreading history, both that just after World War II and more recently. The US did put in place democratic forms in Italy, Germany and Japan after the war. However, they were far, far from real democracies for a long time. The US crushed the left in all countries and allowed prominent fascists to keep their power. The US intervened massively, both overtly and covertly, in all elections. In 1948 the US was planning to instigate military action against Italy if the election didn't turn out correctly. Even today, 57 years later with the Soviet Union an increasingly distant memory, the US has troops based in all three countries.
In other words, these countries had democracy up to the point where it interfered with US wishes. This could be fairly far in these countries in some instances, but today in a country such as Iraq, it would not be far at all. Iraq will never, ever be allowed to do what it wants with its oil -- what do you think will happen if an Iraqi parliament wants to nationalize the oil industry? Iraq will never be allowed to be more belligerent towards Israel -- which it almost certainly would be (as would Saudi Arabia and Egypt) if it were more democratic. The south of Iraq will never be allowed to cozy up to Iran. The Kurds in the north will never be allowed to cozy up to Kurds in Turkey. And Iraq will not be allowed to develop nuclear weapons, which it would do if it were a real democracy.
Your examples of Brazil and Venezuela, as others have pointed out, are telling. The US barely tolerates a modicum of democracy in both places, which are far less important than the mideast, under circumstances where the US has far less control than it would in a post-war Iraq. And despite this, in Venezuela the tolerance may be rapidly running out.
There is simply no way the US will allow anything like democracy in Iraq. Never. And I can't understand why you (or Christopher Hitchens) think that it will. Just because Donald Rumsfeld says so? It goes against all history and common sense.
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