>In what way have we improved things in Iraq?

We removed a dictator from power, along with his cronies. Remember, the Iraqi Baath party was Sunni, the minority population in Iraq. Hussein was responsible for the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi deaths, the repression of the Kurds, the near destruction of the Marsh Arabs...should I go on? That threat has been removed.

>In what way is there more democracy than there was 2.5 years ago? So we forced a sham election that confirmed the ethnic/religious percentages of the Iraqi population.

Sham election? How do you figure? Iraqis have, for the first time since the rise of the Baath Party, voiced their opinions on the direction of their own government. The Sunnis chose not to participate - which is now their right - and gave away thier chance at a larger role in the Iraqi government. Again, remember that they were the controlling force in Iraq for thirty years or so.

> This government will not hold and the country will dissolve in civil war the moment we depart. Some accomplishment.

That remains to be seen. I think history will prove you wrong.

>It was foolish in the extreme to think that a mistrusted foreign power would introduce democracy to a region that has no tradition of democracy whatsoever. At gunpoint. Oh, THAT will sway some hearts and minds.

And what, praytell, would you suggest? That we have left that madman in power? With a chance at true political freedom practically nil?