I just have to ask... what makes us think we can do better?
I mean... we have this society that's wildly diverse and difficult to deal with... people willing to die themselves than let a different ideology live on.
Is there anyone that perhaps thinks, as horrible as it was, that Sadam was what Iraq needed to keep it's shit together? No... it wasn't fun and warm and fuzzy... but whatever glue he had seemed to work. Maybe it was fear, granted, but maybe for these people, that's what it took to keep them together. Our pledge says "Under God, Indivisable, with liberty and justice for all." Did anyone else notice that NONE of those things apply to Iraq?
I'm not saying people shouldn't have democracy if they want it... but democracy in general requires that people be willing to make occasionally painful compromises for the benefit of the whole. It requires that people be willing to accept that they got out voted, and will yet play by the rules even if they disagree with them. In absence of that, you have civil war... and the only thing that I can think of that would change that scenario is either a change in the mentalities (to accept the requirements of democracy) or a dictatorship that is so feared that one side dare not mess with the other for fear of incuring the wrath.
I know it sucks. I don't think it's right. I don't think it creates happiness. I'm just wondering... MAYBE THAT'S WHAT IT TAKES for Iraq.