Democratization of Iraq:

Recent comments by Pres. Bush, Sec. Powell, and Sec. Rumsfeld seem to suggest that Bush Administration would no longer be insisting on Democratization of Iraq -just the change of regime. Democracy in that part of the world is still, unfortunately, a foreign concept. Quite a few of the countries in that region - including Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Syria, UAE, Quatar, Kuwait and Pakistan to name a few -are run by either fanatics, autocrats, dictators or by warlords/generals. Apparently, looks like the Bush Administration has now realized that Democracy is not a microchip that can be mass-implanted soon after (possibly) getting rid of Saddam. Unless US is prepared to stay in Iraq for whatever time it takes (decades?) for democracy to take foothold in Iraq, "Democracy in Iraq" seems a distant dream -no matter how desirable.