[Timmy]

First, you are wrong about your claim that Germany and Japan had "no history of democracy.". Hitler after all was democratically elected!

Hitler was NOT elected. His party was successful in the elections which led to Hindenburg appointing him Chancellor.

As for the very limited democracy you mentioned on the Weimar Republic (<20 years) and the Japan thingy (which I don't know enough about to debate, though your comment that Hitler was elected is enough to make me suspect you may not be correct), so what? Remember that Iraq and Lebanon both had short periods of democratic governments in, what, the fifties? Regardless, my point stands. Iraqis are not too "inferior" for democracy to work, and anyone having such a belief is, quite simply, a racist.

[Bonaparte]

"Hitler was NOT elected."

Correct. This guy gives a fairly accurate summary of how Hitler became Chancellor and then Fuhrer.

[Captain Kirk]

Timmy Sharpton speaks again. Democracy does not spring up overnight. To point out that there are cultural and historical impediments to its immediate flowering is not racist but simple realism. Now...democracy may come to Iraq but it will probably be a gradual process as it was long ago in Europe and America. BTW, do you also think critics of affirmative of action and busing are "racist."

Weimer was not a limited democracy. Germany had one of the freest presses in the world and elections were highly competitive. Just because the voters voted the wrong way doesn't make that any less true.