To: Brumar89 who wrote (10144 ) 3/26/2004 9:48:52 PM From: geode00 Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 81568 You seem to have a poor opinion of democracy I have a realistic view of democracy as did our Founding Fathers. People who look for democracy (one person one vote) as the cure to all that ails them are simplistic and ill informed. What people want is democracy (either pure or representative) AND a liberal political/social/economic system. At least, IMO, MOST people want that although there are always those who want monarchy, dicatatorship, oligopoly. Even the admin and Bremmer understand this about Iraq. A pure democratic vote would likely put in the Shites which could then lead to civil war and the rise of a fundamentalist regime. Ooops. That's why they're hemming and hawing about Sistani's past and current call for democratic elections. Democracy is not the cure for what ails you, it's only one piece. As far as optimism goes, the fact that we can select The Potted Plant as the CEO of our country is a very depressing thought. That's OUR democracy (sorta) at work (sorta) and the result is an admin that lies to us, guts our treasury and looks the other way while Pakistan proliferates nuclear armaments to rogue nations. I think it is entirely possible (though hopefully we still have time to get really, really smart) that we have already crossed the line to inevitable nuclear war. McNamara said we came close 3-4 times and that was a generation ago when there were just two nuclear countries. Now that Putin is rearming Russia and Shrub is pushing for tactical nuclear weapons (kills 50,000 people instead of 500,000), how long do you think before this technology is proliferated to another unstable government with a hated equally unstable neighbor?