Jeff Rigby wrote:
OK, lets restate some things. With the ease that WMD can be built by just
about anyone a concerted effort to promote the growth of "FREE" countries
with a large middle class and a free press seems to be a good idea. Sound
familiar? What we are doing in Iraq!


Difficult to say, so far. There seems to be a pretty good chance of Iraq
becoming at least partially theocratic, and there will be a large
influential population of America-haters there... expected when we've
killed so many of them and trashed so much of the country. Is that a
positive step?

There is also potential for Iraq to become more like Turkey, a
pro-Western secular state.

And what of Iran? The closest thing they have to a pro-Western secular
oriented middle class recently suffered a big political setback, and the
rulers seem determined to built nukes.


There are many people and institutions that are against this. Most notably
for this discussion are Islamic radicals, Osama being one of the notables.

Yep. So why haven't we caught him?


IF you look at history Islam, and to a lesser extent the Catholic church
have been promoters of top down societies.


Islam far less so than Catholicism... for one big difference, there is
no Muslim equivalent of the Pope. And let's not leave out the fact that
numerous Protestant churches have jumped into the
political/socio-econimic scramble to put themselves on top. Let's also
not forget that the Bush Administration has been notable for policies
that tend to shift income & influence away from the lower & middle class.

DSK