I count myself among those described by the author. I would add that it is not so much a question of being fooled again because that implies that Bush deliberately fooled the country and I think there is no evidence whatsoever to support that charge. I believe Bush proceeded into Iraq the same way he proceeded throughout his administration, with a white heart but an empty head. The lesson I learned from Iraq is the one you cite, that the Muslim world is not ready for democracy because the condition precedent, an enlightenment, has not occurred.
The second lesson I take from Iraq is that we do not have another trillion dollars to squander on feel-good nationbuilding schemes. Our job now as a country is to contain Obama, stop the economic and moral deterioration at home, win the next two elections, and rebuild the military for 21st century warfare. While this is going on we should enthusiastically pursue Mark Levin's Article V movement to reform Washington from flyover country.
I think yours is a very good post. It would be interesting for the New York Times to take a serious look at why the war on poverty has utterly failed the African-American ghetto as well as the whole of America. We have learned our lesson from Iraq but the New York Times will never, ever get real about the harm it, Lyndon Johnson, and their spawn have done to the American culture.
