Democracy: The Unfalsifiable Ideal

The trouble with this view of democracy promotion is that it is unfalsifiable: if democracy doesn't take root, that just shows we didn't try hard enough; if democracy takes root without liberal results, just be patient -- freedom is on the march! The sheer fact that people with no direct connection to Saddam Hussein found Iraq a livable place under his brutal dictatorship and now do not should tell us that all is not well there. After a certain point, you have to look countries electing Islamist parties and descending into sectarian chaos, with total catastrophe only averted by the presence of thousands of American troops, and ask if theory meets practice. Eventually, repeatedly invoking our successes in World War II and the Cold War becomes an exercise in missing the point.