When a writer goes for the "stick your finger into something" analogy, I get soft.
Yet, I must still ask myself why, why we chose this region in particular to instill democracy? Why not try the instilling process on some isolated island first, succeed, and then implement what was learned on a larger scale?
Also, will their new constitution come with a built-in Bill of Rights? You know, like women having the right to wear burkhas. Like men having the right to throw rocks at someone's head while they stand buried up to the neck in sand? Camel democracy.
We didn't choose the Islamic countries, they chose us. We will be engaged in that and all other regions of the world from now on. Rome isn't Rome any more.
The Iraqi government will be pretty good by middle eastern standards, but pretty crummy by our standards, and we will have connections and levers of power all through it.
The security situation is not as bad as the Drive-By Media wants us to believe. Most of the country is secure. The Iraqi militia and police are growing in numbers and in ability. A a large percentage of the security in the country is under their control, with U.S, embeds and backup, but we will never pull all of our troops out. With our forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, we have Iran sandwiched.
Our military is doing a magnificent job and having steady success, but you would never know that by listening to the Drive-By Media. They hate President Bush, they hate the military, they hate the U.S.A., and they are praying to their pagan gods that we leave in defeat. We won't.