I like what you said about the Iraqi people helping themselves rather than waiting around for the US to do for them. All it will do is set up a new generation of liberalism.....hahah!
Freedom, especially democracy must be desired before it can be had.
I'm going to go even further with my thoughts on this matter.
Unfortunate comparisons have been made between the liberation of European countries from WWII German occupation forces and the current "liberation" of Iraq. The liberation of European countries restored self-government to peoples that had it prior to German occupation. They knew, and loved what was being restored. Once liberated, these people joined in every aspect of our efforts to defeat the enemy. We no longer had to seek German collaborators. The people we liberated surrendered them to us.
The same cannot be said of Iraq. Efforts to defeat the enemy are absent the general population. Even the efforts of Iraqi police and defense forces might be absent if not for the financial gain offered by our government.
The Iraqis have never known democracy, never sought democracy, and may not be inclined toward democracy. The desire to self govern must come from within the leaders of a nation. In Islamic countries this will only be achieved by way of leading clerics giving their blessings to such a concept. The clerics are comparable in stature to the Emperor of Japan, the religious figurehead of the Japanese Empire. When Hirohito subjugated himself to our insistence for a democratic post war Japan, the Japanese population followed without resistance.
Without such backing from Islamic clerics, the religious figureheads of Iraq, our efforts to instill democratic values upon the Iraqi population are destined to fail.
If any comparision between WWII efforts and present efforts is to be made, here it is. We had defeated the Japanes military, but the subjugation could not take place until the religous leader of Japan surrendered. It was not the Japanese Prime Minister or military Chief of Staff that addressed the nation of Japan and informed them of the surrender. It was their god, Emperor Hirohito himself.
This means one more thing. We must set our sights squarely upon Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. He must surrender, or die.