You said — “In the countryside, Sharia law is being imposed by mullahs who have been “liberated” from their suppression under Saddam’s dictatorship. And the Christians have been mostly driven out of the country.”
—
This is why “democracy” is going to fail in Iraq. Islam and democracy are enemies of each other. The one cannot remain in place while the other gains ascendency. They are mutually exclusive of each other...
Yes. This is why Saddam - a secular ruler - ruled as a dictator and kept the mullahs suppressed, and didn't allow free elections that would result in fundamentalist rule.