Re: "...a productive, peaceful, democratic contributer to the world."
Maybe... just maybe. Eventually. (That was the dream anyway, and then serve as a spark for the ENTIRE Middle East.)
Or possibly, for the foreseeable future anyway, it will remain an unsettled place, and a major ally for Iran....
Or, possibly, there will be THREE 'Iraqs': a Democratic Kurdistan (if Turkey will leave it alone), a rump-Iraq in Sunni-settled lands bordering Saudi Arabia and Jordan (perhaps one day to be absorbed by one or both), and an increasingly Theocratic 'Islamic Republic' in the Shi'a half... along Iranian lines.
That way could lie Democracy, too....
Time will tell. But, whichever of these possible futures, I expect it will take a long time in arriving. |
