I am puzzled by the concept that Arabs don't want, or worse, can't handle, a pluralistic, secular, individualistic form of government.

If you will reread my post, you will doubtless see that I in no way implied that the Iraqis, or any Arabs, are incapable of democracy, or that they don't want it in principle.

I said that Americans can't create an Arab society because Americans are not Arabs. ...Well, most of us aren't.

I also said that any American social structure inflicted from without will be seen as an imposition of foreign values by the inflictees, and will thus fail.

If the Iraqis want democracy, they will have a chance to build one. The best thing the Americans can do is to provide support: to rebuild what infrastructure has been broken, enforce civil law in compliance with Arab custom, and supervise fair elections -- though perhaps the UN might be persuaded to do this last, as they have extensive experience monitoring elections and have no partisan connection with the armed forces of the US and our allies.

If the people of Iraq want a democracy, they need to build one that they can work with, which may not be a democracy of which the current American Administration will approve. If that's what comes to pass, the Americans will just have to swallow hard and accept it, and not repeat the fiasco that installed the Shah in Iran in the 1950s.

Arab democracy deserves a chance. It also need to come from the Arabs, not dictated by an American viceroy. We, as Americans, may not know much about viceroys, being relatively new to the conquest business, but the Arabs are well-acquainted with them, having had a long history of rule by imperial powers. Arab reaction to our behavior will be informed by their history. We need to remember this.

The author of the article you cite in your PS seems to understand this. His oxymoronic remark about "perfect democracy" made me laugh, though. The strength of democracy is its imperfection; it needs to be reinvented at every election, thus continually renewing the practice of self-sovereignty in the popular culture, and maintaining the knowledge of individual liberty among its citizens. It's not an institution, but a process. The American process works in America. The Arabs will develop their own process that responds to and modifies their own culture. If we let them.

Regards--
Mary Anne