] In no uncertain terms, the president affirmed that “the
] world has a clear interest in the spread of democratic
] values,” not least because “free nations do not breed the
] ideologies of murder.” The president invoked the examples
] of American-led democratization in post-World War ii
] Germany and Japan, and he pointedly rejected the claim
] that Arab nations are incapable of sustaining democracy.
] What the president did not say, yet gently and
] ambiguously implied, was that so deep a cultural change
] would require America to occupy Iraq in force and manage
] its affairs for years to come.
]
] Could such a venture in democratic imperialism be
] harmonized with our liberal principles? Even if so, would
] it work? Is it possible to bring liberalism to a society
] so long at odds with the values of the West?
]
] All of these questions were posed and answered, both in
] theory and in practice, during Britain’s imperial rule of
] India. Three great British thinkers, Edmund Burke, James
] Mill, and John Stuart Mill, not only philosophized about
] liberal imperialism; they lived it.

This is long, and yet way too short...

Democratic Imperialism: A Blueprint by Stanley Kurtz - Policy Review, No. 118