If Bush's invasion of Iraq leads to a domino effect of Democracy...

[Person Man]

Well, generally for a domino effect to begin, the very first domino has to actually be pushed...

Yeah. ...and a PURELY objective theory like the domino effect just doesn't work, especially because it tries to measure subjective issues. 


...and we had a surplus in the 90s. Why can't we have it again. Look. The answer is more liberal research laws, stronger immigration of all skill levels, allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire and flat lining the military budget, with concerns with inflation and using the taxes to strengthen research and health care infrastructure.

[Erc]

Not that I thought it could or would occur at the time (see my earlier post in this thread), but remember the circumstances in 2005...the so-called "Cedar Revolution" in Lebanon, a detente with Libya--not to mention Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, and the Ukraine outside of the Middle East.  It was easy to get a bit optimistic at the time--and although that optimism has since been proven to be unfounded, don't dismiss it out of hand.

[Michael Z]

Why is it so amusing to people to bump ancient threads in which people used their current knowledge to judge the future and happen to be wrong?  Who would have known what has happened would happen?  It's not that new a phenomenon that people incorrectly predict the future.  It's pretty easy to look back and say, "what an idiot" because you know now what they didn't know then.  Obviously they wouldn't have said that if they knew how painfully slow development in Iraq would be.

To be fair, a lot of people thought the Iraq war was going to be a frigging disaster as soon as 2002/03, and that anybody who even believed for a second that it could lead to a "domino effect" of democracy was completely off their trolley.

[12th Doctor]

If it did work... then yes, I do think he would.  It has been said that "People only thank Presidents who do things for their country".  Well, I think that that kinda thinking seriously underestimates the benefits of having a democratic Middle East for the rest of the world, including the United States.

Of course, thats all an if.  Saddly, the executon has been poor for the start.  Granted, should it work 30 years down the road, people will only remember that it worked, not that it was difficult, and people will be largely forgiving.  But... the poor execution thus far makes it that much less likely.

[minionofmidas]

The good lord help me - I agree with every word of a post of Philip's.

Seems that Philip deleted his post.