[POGIFFMOO]

Welllll.....Saddam's slave army was unwilling to fight for him, or his regime, as opposed to GW's (our) guys, who couldn't wait to kick butt. Democracy trumps everything else.

[Illbay]

Democracy indeed trumps everything else.

The major point here is that governments are threatened by many different things. Tyrants have to fear their own people in exact proportion to the fear they themselves exact.

As soon as the tyrant is seen to be vulnerable to the proper extent, he is set upon and very often, he is destroyed.

A democracy, otoh, depends upon the integrity of the PEOPLE. As long as the people are honest and true to themselves, to one another, a democratic republic will survive--even if there is from time to time corruption in the political class, because the people can purge the system. But when the people themselves are corrupt, and ungodly, and wicked, they cannot hold their freedoms, and the result is, more often than not--a tyranny.

Ironic.