FORTUNATELY DEMOCRACY IS VERY CONTAGIOUS:

Rumsfeld Looks to Military Success to 'Tip' Iraqi Opinion: Defense secretary argues that routing insurgents could persuade public to back interim leadership. (Mark Mazzetti, November 9, 2004, LA Times)

[D]efense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and other officials say they are hoping that crushing militants in Fallouja will serve as a milestone for winning the backing of the Iraqi public and deflating the lethal insurgency.

As U.S. Marines launched the most significant offensive in Iraq since the fall of Baghdad in April 2003, Rumsfeld argued Monday that Iraqi public opinion was at a "tipping point" and that defeating the insurgents in Fallouja could help nudge a large majority of Iraqis into supporting the U.S.-backed interim government.

"Success in Fallouja will deal a blow to the terrorists in the country, and should move Iraq further away from a future of violence to one of freedom and opportunity for the Iraqi people," Rumsfeld said during a Pentagon briefing. [...]

"Over time you'll find that the process of tipping will take place, that more and more of the Iraqis will be angry about the fact that their innocent people are being killed by the extremists," he said. "And that they'll want elections, and the more they see the extremists acting against that possibility of elections, I think they'll turn on those people."

Mr. Rumsfeld has been reading his Gladwell.

Posted by Orrin Judd at November 9, 2004 8:50 AM