Reverse Domino Theory

The fear used to justify Vietnam was that if Vietnam fell to the Communists, all of southeast Asia would follow. It appears that Bush is trying to do the reverse, i.e., create a democracy in Iraq and the rest of the Middle East will follow. Political arrogance and hubris in the extreme. Israel has been a shining example of democracy for many decades, but no movement toward democracy has followed. Of course, it did not help that we supported Saddam in his battle against Iran and prior to that we kept the Shah in power in Iran until his popular overthrow, and we still support an anti-democratic Saudi Arabia. Our record is not good.