The foreign policy experts for the Bush propaganda machine must be having fits. After all of the other justifications for the invasion and occupation of Iraq were proven to be lies and misdirections, the administration finally decided on what I'm sure it felt waa a safe raison de guerre: spreading democracy throughout the world. So safe, in fact, that it was kind of an all-purpose reason for any imperial behavior by the United States.

It remains to be seen what kind of government Iraq will end up with, but it sure looks like a democratically elected theocracy might be a possibility. But let's take a look at the rest of the world where America is involved and anxious to "spread democracy."

The Palestinians overwhelming freely elected Hamas as its ruling party. Since one of the goals of Hamas is the destruction of the Israeli nation, neither Israel nor the US will recognize Hamas, the fairly and democratically elected representatives of the Palestinians. Condoleeza Rice, US Secretary of State, declared that the US wouldn't recognize any nation that was opposed to a two-nation solution to the Israeli-Palestinian problem. She probably will change that statement, though, seeing as how there are components of the Israeli government that oppose a two-nation solution as well. Shouldn't she have someone checking her facts before she speaks out like that?

So that's going to be a problem for the Bush administration, since Hamas was fairly and democratically elected. I'm guessing that pre-emptive attack for fuzzy national security reasons will trump spreading democracy as justification for US aggression. Unfortunately, if the fuzzy national security reasons are revealed to be lies, then there's no option to fall back on "spreading democracy," since we would have effectively smacked down democracy. Oh well.

And now, most recently, Rene Preval, a one-time ally of ousted leader Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was elected president of Haiti. The Bush administration was instrumental in removing Aristide from power several years ago. And now those darn Haitians have elected someone who will probably welcome Aristide back with open arms. The majority of Haitians, apparently, love Preval. The teeny-weeny moneyed upper class don't like him so much, though. And you know when it comes to supporting either the population or supporting the money people that American politicians will go for the money every time. I mean, that's what they do here. I don't see why Haiti should be any different.

I'll bet the CIA is already over there in force looking for a way to engineer a "popular coup" without the support of the populace to remove Preval from office. Wait and see.