DougR wants us all to believe that there would be NO unrest and NO interest in democracy in the Middle East except for the recent US military intervention.

It certainly seems that all kinds of cultural influences are at play, and that a lot of credit must be given to the ever-increasing availability of free (i.e., uncensored) communications technology.

This is not to deny the obvious catalytic effect of the military effort, which has undoubtedly caused all kinds of developments to happen much more quickly than they would have otherwise. Of course, the effects of the invasions have included plenty of negative aspects (increased numbers of bombing by insurgents, etc.) in addition to positive ones like the recent semi-successful Iraqi election.