Democracy? Oh, that will NEVER happen in Iraq. Oh yeah? Remember the USSR?

Can't set up a democracy in Iraq. Won't ever work. The Middle East won't change. All the usual stuff from the usual pundits and "experts". Well, take a look at this article in the National Review Online here from a honest-to-goodness, put-in-a-gulag, Soviet dissident that saw it all change, in spite of what our best and brightest minds were saying at the time. Maybe things won't change over there, but I want to see someone at least try first...