Iraq doesn't just "practice Islam" -- it has enshrined Islam as the official state religion in its constitution.
If my memory serves me correctly, we were built on the same principles with Christianity as our guideline.
Christianity was "our guideline" only in a very generic sense. If you read the formal documents on which this country was founded, you'll find few -- if any -- religious aspects of Christianity in them. My sense is that the only uniquely Christian aspect of this country has been what I call "civil Christianity" (as opposed to "religious Christianity"). Civil Christianity is that aspect of Christianity that deals with the basic -- and historically unique -- notion that Christians are expected to treat all people (Christian and non-Christian) alike.
The founders of this country went to great lengths to eradicate any notion of an official government religion -- specifically to avoid the kind of nonsense that has become commonplace in Iraq today.
President Bush did say..things won't be perfect.
The alternative is to wait for the "perfect" solution, stay isolated and neutral allowing the rising extremists to squash the rapid tide of moderate reformation.
In this scenario, the world population of Muslims continues to increase rapidly under extremist (Islamofascist) influence and the result would be a world war in the very near future unlike any other we have ever seen.
Is that really what you want?
Some of the countries that have an official state religion: UK, Argentina, Costa Rica, Finland, Greece, Romania, Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Malaysia, Thailand, and Israel [de facto]. The Iraqi constitution also protects the practice of religion.
The founders of this country went to great lengths to eradicate any notion of an official government religion -- specifically to avoid the kind of nonsense that has become commonplace in Iraq today.
Right, they did not want anything similar to the Church of England.