It was a noble effort to try, but maybe Kissenger was right.
Money and Power talks, bullshit and Democracy walks every time in most parts of the world.
Didn’t you meet any Iraqis who gave you hope?
Oh and the Sunni awakening counsels. At least in our AO they were nothing more then armed thugs that spent their free time competeing with the local Iraqi police to see who could run a better kidnapping ring. The only ones you could sorta even slightly trust were the IA and that was only because the Iraqi government keep locals from being assigned back home.
How about Power and Democracy? Why can't that combination work? I truly believe the reason GWB's doctrine didn't work was because the leftists attacked it from the get-go -- those same people that after two years of hell plead that we give obummer MORE time! --and divided the nation and indeed the world from the most courageous bold plan to bring moderation and a modicum of democracy to M.E. EVER. Power combined with setting the foundations for democracy. Contrary to what most people are told it was done before and even TODAY in Islamic countries. It was done in Iran, it is done today in Turkey and other moderate Islamic countries. Now I know that you would say these countries did it on their own, but that's just an illusion. Powerful countries and especially western powers have ALWAYS had their hands into the ME politics, churning and machinating one way or another depending on their politics. Look at Iran and carter's damnable machinations.
No, I never buy the ignorant and self-serving liberal line about "change comes exclusively from within their own culture". It has a lot, and in the case of ME, perhaps EVERYTHING to do with the outside political culture and designs.