Awad Nasir, premier Iraqi poet, confronts and dispels the misanthropic, soft bigotry that passes for "appreciation of cultural nuance" and the "difficulty of establishing democracy in regions that have never known it":

Can Iraqis rule themselves?

There are some who say "No." They base their claim on pseudo-political mumbo-jumbo according to which the destruction of Iraqi civil society by Saddam Hussein has drained our nation of the resources it needs to create a people-based government.

Anyone with any intimate knowledge of Iraq would know that claim to be not true. Iraqi people have been fighting Saddam Hussein's tyranny since 1968, long before the U.S. and the rest of the world got wise to his evil schemes and methods.

The ease with which the U.S.-led Coalition captured virtually the whole of Iraq in two weeks is, at least in part, due to the fact that the overwhelming majority of our people did not, would not, fight in support of their oppressor.

Today, the U.S. and its allies have almost all of the 24 million Iraqis as their friends.

Indeed, they will view us as friends in liberation and partners in reconstruction. Britain's a stalwart ally, but they're thicker into socialism than Vermont; whatever Blair wants for economic reform may be well-intentioned in its unfortunate poisonousness. Even more remarkable is the idea that the United Nations - recall, the same body that three weeks ago could not even sensibly enforce its own authority - should have any significance in reconstruction. Unless I'm mistaken, the species best known for avoiding the burdens of combat but all-the-more-willing to benefit from victory are vultures and hyenas. Not the most trustworthy beasts. Next to France and every other country using the United Nations as a power broker, that is.

Again: the United Nations ostensibly opposed the liberation of Iraqis, and fairly well demonstrated to the history books that "stability" means more to them than "democracy." They're obviously hostile to the idea and about as good a choice for administration of instituting freedoms as China might be for, say, hosting a summit on the importance of peaceful assembly and free elections.

On principle, the idea is ludicrous. Put into practice, it spells a nightmare. God help the Kosovars, and God save the Iraqis.

America, move in and let capitalists show the way.

UPDATE: Via Andrew Sullivan, William Rees-Moog applies particulars to why the United Nations is second only to the Islamofascist threat to democratization.

UPDATE II: I thought I'd say a thousand words of my own. Iraq doesn't need them, nor does the entire world. Put 'em with the League.