Through what in retrospect seems to be a highly manipulative and dishonest media campaign, George Bush Jr. and the United States armed forces have turned their focus on the "democratization" of Iraq. Once the necessary evidence needed to support the idea that Saddam Hussein was hiding weapons of mass destruction remained unfound a new mission needed to be established. So the seemingly impossible task of bringing western democracy to a distinctly non-western state has fallen upon the United States of America. Is this even possible? Do not, first and foremost according to the basics of democracy, the Iraq people need to want western democracy? Assuming that the Iraqi people do want to be subject to the western idea of self-rule, can they be taught how?
             The first problem with the democratization of Iraq is the historical context. Iraq sits upon what "historically has been a frontier in the sense that Mesopotamia's unique geographic features and location have attracted a succession of invaders" (Helms 1984, 8). The Middle East has been subject to invasion of the western world for centuries. Beginning with the crusades from Europe in the 11th century, more recently with the perceived invasion of the West Bank and the Creation of Israel, the animosity towards the west only grows (Mackey 2002, 384). It isn't hard to figure out why the Iraqis have not been welcoming "Operation Iraqi Freedoms" soldiers with open arms.
             Arab unity was central to the recently ousted Ba'ths party's ideology. Numerous attempts were made by Arab Nationalists to make it a reality (Helms 54). Numerous members of the Ba'th party have been leftover in Iraq. Many citizens of Iraq still believe in a unified Arab world and in that world, there is no room for U.S. occupation or Israel for that matter. Many of these "insiders", commandos and officials, still exist and wage war on the occupying U.S. forces in increasing numbers (Robinson 2003, 48). They are not necess...