Quote Originally Posted by Sean Osborne View Post
It also seems to me that its not Iraqi society as a whole which opposes democratization but Islamists and remnant totalitarian Ba'athists who violently oppose this.
I agree that a great many Iraqis want some sort of democratization (although they may understand the details in very different ways, and they also want other things, such as security and a decent standard of living). I would somewhat modify your statement, however, to read "(some, predominately Sunni) Islamists..." given that among the most enthusiastic proponents and beneficiaries of formal electoral democracy in Iraq are the strongly Islamist (Shi'ite) Supreme Council, al-Dawa, and even Sadr...

(I'll leave aside their degree of commitment to other aspects of democratic values.)