Friedman

Gets it right in this article on Iraq.

This was always a shot in the dark - but one that I would argue was morally and strategically worth trying.

Because if it is impossible for the peoples of even one Arab state to voluntarily organize themselves around a social contract for democratic life, then we are looking at dictators and kings ruling this region as far as the eye can see. And that will guarantee that this region will be a cauldron of oil-financed pathologies and terrorism for the rest of our lives.

What is inexcusable is thinking that such an experiment would be easy, that it could be done on the cheap, that it could be done with any old army and any old coalition and any old fiscal policy and any old energy policy. That is the foolishness of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld. My foolishness was thinking they could never be so foolish.

In Zakaria's book, The Future of Freedom, he shows that countries with "liberal autocrats" transition to functioning democracies better than countries that force democracy when there is no educated middle class. The examples are South Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia. In the 1960s, each of these countries were poor and had autocratic governments. At the same time, many African and South American countries had democracies. What occurred over time were majoritarian policies in Africa and South America did not foster the growth of the economy. Politicians were elected on platforms for short-term political interests and did not focus on education, infrastructure, strict law and strict banking rules, policies that take longer to benefit the country.

In any case, these countries are now the models for the 3rd world, especially South Korea and African and South America toil in political and economic trouble.

So what's the lesson for Iraq? We need to foster liberty as much as democracy - that is, freedom FROM the majority.