&gt; Most people acknowledge that the Iraqi people aren&#x27;t ready for Democracy.<p>This is a really contentious statement that you just drop in both as fact and as the basis of your entire argument.<p>No, I would not say that &#x27;the Iraqi people aren&#x27;t ready for Democracy&#x27; is a true statement. I also wouldn&#x27;t say that what &#x27;most people [in the US]&#x27; think about the Iraqi people&#x27;s readiness for democracy [in Iraq] is really relevant to the question of whether they are ready for democracy [in Iraq]. I <i>also</i> wouldn&#x27;t say that the question of whether they (as a group) are &#x27;ready&#x27; for democracy in Iraq is relevant to answering the question of whether individual Iraqi people are &#x27;ready&#x27; for democracy in Minnesota (whatever that means).<p>&gt; Look at how much trouble the U.S. has had cultivating democracy in places like Iraq.<p>It also doesn&#x27;t help that we have a long history of doing the exact opposite of &#x27;cultivating democracy&#x27; in the Middle East (ie, going in and deposing democratically-elected leaders so that we can install dictators that are friendly to the US).<p>The US has had trouble cultivating democratically elected regimes <i>that are friendly towards us</i> in countries like Iraq. In the US, we tend to conflate &#x27;democratic government&#x27; with &#x27;government that shares our objectives and goals&#x27;.