The enemy is a terror network involving dozens of clandestine organizations and several countries, most of them in the Middle East. Recently Iran seems to have increased from merely being the greatest of these threats to wholely dominating the network, and is now the obvious prime threat to world security.
By democratizing Iraq, we may inspire a domino effect throughout the region in the mid to long term. The "root causes" people are right. But they are wrong that the root cause is poverty or American and Israeli policies. The root causes of terrorism are indigenous governments and radical movements. Nothing less than instilling democracy throughout the region, by whatever means are appropriate, will suffice. After September 11th, this became quite clear. That is why anyone who disagrees with this is properly referred to as having a September 10th mentality.
Thank you for developing your thoughts.
I can have great respect for your position. The big question is, as I see it, if "instilling democracy throughout the region" really is possible or if it's more likely that it will make the enemy stronger. (In the short term, it has.) If that's the case, the best thing to do is to wait for reform. Sure, America democracized Germany and Japan, but neither of those countries had a long history of anti-Americanism. And the democratic world was behind America at that time. And they had competent leadership.