Sailing on the Right Course

Is it possible to "transform" the politics of Iraq-and the greater Middle East-to make them more democratic? President Bush has long believed it is. His January 2002 State of the Union address is best remembered for the "Axis of Evil," but it also defined the "greater objective" of the global war

The Bush Doctrine and the President's speeches were never premised entirely, or even primarily, on the dangers posed by Osama bin Laden or Saddam Hussein, though these were very real. The fullest expression of President Bush's vision of democratic transformation came in his speech to the American Enterprise Institute on February 28. "There was a time," he said, "when many said that the cultures of Japan and Germany were incapable of sustaining democratic values. Some say the same of Iraq today. They are mistaken."