'Democracy is coming to get you'

Newsweek runs an interesting article about U.S.-approved Iraqi Prime Minister Allawi.  The gist: Allawi is a thug, but the Iraqi people want a thug.  They need a thug.  So he may have personally chopped off a hand or two with an ax.  That's Iraqi for "slap on the wrist".  Ok, ok, so he may have personally executed six or seven Iraqis, gangland-style, a couple weeks before he came to power.  Sometimes a rowdy country needs tough love.
 
After all, you can lead Iraq to democracy, but you can't make it drink.

"You can have an overdose of democracy," a young Iraqi translator tried to explain last week to theAmerican colonel he works for.

...

"These days when we want to scare the kids in my family, we tell them, 'Democracy is coming to get you' or 'Freedom is coming to get you,'" he says. "The kids don't know what it means, but they run away."

I don't know exactly what to make of all this, but it makes me wonder if in twelve years we'll be listening to President Jeb Bush justify Bush v. Iraq III after the fact by asking "Do you think Iraq was better off under Allawi?"