"Your points about various things that have occurred in Iraq towards becoming a democracy such as voting and free press are certainly valid but those improvements have to include a semblence of stability, national pride, and cultural unity or they're simply a house of cards."

Does this also apply to America?
:
Do we need a semblance of stablity [but more significantly when our country become independent did we need a semblance of stabilty [our 200+ years is as a democracy by itself gives a semblance of stablity] but we existed in this land for number of decades before our independence, but the transitition wasn't stable nor did it have that semblance. I would say that Iraq is very stable considering it's a brand new govt, but the reason it is so stable is it has the world's superpower helping to maintain this stability. Btw, Egypt just had an incidence in which hundreds of men/boys of the apparent general public attempted and were to some degree successful in raping large numbers women in public area- and even those women wearing the veil. This insane group act is perhaps less dramatic than murdering people with explosives, but in terms general instability it's perhaps more worrisome. Worrisome because the Egypt police idly stood by, and because the media and govt denied it happenned.

National pride? Does this also apply to America?

Cultural unity? Does this also apply to America?

Or is America simply a pack of cards? Where in the world is there a example of a "Marvel of democracy" that Iraq was expected of becoming within 3 years.
I submit that at this dark moment in Iraq, that Iraq is and will/could be a marvel of democracy.

"What good is a free press if the various factions use it to inflame their particular sect in violence towards all others?"

Plenty good. Now I understand that in certain situations you have the situation similar of calling fire in crowded theatre. But as general rule, plenty good.

"What good is voting if majority rule ends up placing a fundamentalist Shiite majority in power with thoughts of revenge over their former Sunni ruling class? How can we view a move from a somewhat secular government (brutal though it might have been) to a government controlled by chauvinistic mullahs aligned to Iran as a step forward?"

First it seems you want "Cultural unity" yet against are majority having representation. And, if Iranian leadership actually was elected by the Iranian people I would have no problem even with this kind of nut being the leader- and as a side note if nothing else we have good idea of which country to nuke out of existence if some terrorists is given a nuke. But the election was rigged, and was a fraud/scam that probably only Jimmy Carter "bought".
And the present leader of Iran is not from nor representing the majority- that btw should be common knowledge.
Finally as a general rule, the worse countries in the world are "secular governments" and especially if you mean "secular governments" which deny people the right to worship anything other the pure and godly STATE and it's noble/wise/brutal enough ["to get the job done"] leadership.

"I think we pin way too much on the word "democracy". It is more than just voting and the Bill of Rights that gave us our greatness. Look at our early Constitution for example. Even though it had noble ideals behind it, it still allowed incredible disparity in human potential based on race, gender, and economic status.
..."
One thing you missing [in a HUGE way] is that a democracy got us to a world without legal slavery- not to mention the incredible prosperity and in comparison to the long history of humankind- a relatively peaceful world.

"What got us to the powerhouse and unified culture we are today is too complicated to wrap up in a few democratic milestones."

To say that America is unified culture is simply wrong. America is extremely diverse- all notable democracies throughout time have been; and America is more so than any other democracy in the past. We are fairly unified in regards to keeping our freedoms- but not enough.

"We had incredible amounts of natural resources including huge amounts of open and virtually uninhabited land to expand into. We had basically a common language and religion. We had common adversity and hardship that tended to bind us together. We had a slave population that added to our economic strength. (I'm not advocating this by the way). We had amazing luck as well. A few inches either way in bullet travel and we'd have lost some of our most influential leaders. Those leaders were unusual as well for the times. It's been well documented that a great deal of the original framers were extremely free thinkers, unbound by religious dogma that had so hampered their European counterparts." "

It's not luck nor resources. It's democracy.