I do not for one moment believe it was EVER Mr Bush's intention to build a democracy anywhere. That is propaganda for the naive to swallow.

The intention of the Bush administration was to win victories and to secure valuable resources (oil) and strategic postioning in Afghanistan and the Middle East. He was also seeking revenge for past matters between the Bushes and Saddam Hussein, and between the USA and Bin Laden, but I think those would be in fact rather secondary considerations to the strategic ones.

Regarding "building a democracy"...the only intention the USA ever has in that regard is to build a compliant administration in a foreign land that superficially appears to be somewhat democratic (for propaganda purposes) while it does EXACTLY what corporate America tells it to do. A client state, in other words. Democracies that do not do what corporate America tells them to are brought down by assassination (Allende), undeclared war and other pressure tactics (Nicaragua, and coups (Venezuela...but the last coup there failed...there will probably be another).

These are exacly the same intentions the Soviets had toward client states in their heyday. It's empire-building, not democracy-building.

- LH