Road to democracy is a violent one

Its seems as the worlds attention, (and rightly so) has been focused on the tragic events in Asia things in Iraq have again gone into freefall. Seemingly, that long road to democracy is destined to be one of violence and contradiction. The impending elections look to be a catalyst for the situation to get worse. The BBC add some interesting commentary, suggesting the insurgency now numbers over 200,000, further postulating that the U. S. Government is plainly ignoring the severity of the situation. Clearly, the U.K government's view is that the situation is serious enough to commit more troops, so who's view is accurate?.

The clear question is who's winning the battle for 'hearts and minds'?. Ultimately, I guess this is gonna be the side that can and does make the difference for the ordinary people. Not being to close to the situation its hard to postulate. However, from an outsiders perspective until the rebuild process start's to make a difference to the 'real people', democracy is always going to be a fraught process. This would lead me to ask, is it too early for democracy?. Indeed, is democracy truly the panacea for the middle east that the U.S. seems to think it is?. I'm guessing some in Iraq would say it isn't.