[Owl558]

"Iraq is...well, a unique case. As much as I support our troops and Bush, my jury is still out on whether we should have gone there at all."

Post WWII democracy was imposed in a very deliberate way just as communism was imposed in the east in a very deliberate way. The difference with Iraq is that the Axis countries did dabble in democracy before the war.

As to the jury being out on Iraq, the axiom holds true that if it is successful, it will be the greatest foreign policy achievement since Roosevelt. If it fails, Bush is a goat for all time. The president has guts, if anything.

Your point contrasting a spreading power and Islamic, fascist hellholes with the non-expansionist, ex-Soviet bloc nations is well taken. We stand where we need to, like in Ukraine, but for the most part, I think these nations are making their way in the right direction. Some faster than others.

[Sender]

Yep, some faster than others. I had a good time in Belarus. They still remember some things our society has forgotten, like intelligent conversation instead of TV, and the joys of family and friends just getting together. Also walking to school or work. They were amused that Americans drive to somewhere a block away. I remember one night on a bus full of slightly drunken dacha-and-banya goers, singing...singing, of all things, and the bus stopped in the middle of the woods, and the driver said something like "boys on the left, girls on the right, OK?" I had no idea why we were stopping until they explained "It's to pee, OK?" There are no clean public toilets in Belarus, I learned. Anyway, if things ever go downhill here, I could always take my meager 401K savings and retire there and live like a king. They couldn't imagine what someone could possibly do with a gigantic American paycheck, but the fishing was good, the company was good, and no one was too worried about it anyway :)