Trying to bring "democracy" into the Middle East is still someone's pipe dream of how the world "should" be. It's altruistic. It's idealistic.
But it's UNREALISTIC. (Sounds good though, nice sound byte to add with a smile when WMD's are nowhere to be found and after the dictator is hanged.) AND YOU BOUGHT INTO IT.

Look at Saudi Arabia (our "ally"....LOL), it's still functioning as well as can be expected. And it's a monarchy with NO elections. Why aren't we over there preaching them the democratic gospel? After all, 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudis. (cough, cough; just ignore).

Like you want your daughter to grow up to be a doctor (but she wants to be a rock star). Or you think little Jimmy down the street ought to stop smoking grass and join the church. Or how about Ms. Brown across the road who's been sleeping with a married man (your business associate) for 10 years? Wouldn't you just like to tell them it's wrong? I mean, don't you have BETTER ideas? Or how about that group in Rwanda that's killing off the Tutsis? Or those poor bastards in....pick one.

>"The persistent delusion that if we just let the tyrants have some territory, they won't want any more and will leave the rest of us in peace."

For one, unless it's affecting us directly, we shouldn't be involved unless it's under agreement of UN auspices. The world had settled into what it was, and we decided to change it.

"Democracy", my ass. All they have to do is repeat that until the next election and hide underneath the flag, and everyone else will buy into it.
And YOU will pay for it.