Much of the Bush administration, the Republican majority in Congress and parts of the American news media still harbour a hope that the overthrow of Saddam Hussein will lead to the establishment of democracy and peace in Iraq. No such optimism, to judge by three recent books, pervades the world of more-or-less academic experts. Larry Diamond was asked by Con-dbleezza Rice, a former colleague at Stanford University, to advise the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) in Baghdad on how to develop democracy. His conclusions, sadly, are banal. The best he has to say in "Squandered Victory" is that "from the soggy soil of political pluralism and power sharing, and with continued international support, a genuine democracy could gradually emerge."
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