[PeterisP]

One could argue that Iraqi circumstances are fundamentally less suitable for democracy, not because "the Iraqi people are simply allergic to democracy" but because of the structure of the country divided both by religion (Sunni vs Shia) and ethnicity (the Kurdish regions) - democracy in the region would be much more feasible if the Ottoman empire was divided differently according to the boundaries of the "natural" communities (e.g. instead of the current Iraq/Syria border one would have a Shia state, a Sunni state and a Kurdish state since, say 1930s) but the currently established borders are drawn in a way as if to intentionally maximize the long-term instability within each country.

[_glass]

Like the US, (catholic vs protestant) and ethnicity (some Mexican regions) ... The division of the Ottoman empire was nullified by the War of Independence of the Turks. A Kurdish state would have never been possible, because of the ethnic plurality in the region. The religious divide, is an expression of a political one. The Iraq-Syria border makes as much sense as the US-Mexican border, German-French, still democracy is a possibility.

[aabeshou]

That sounds plausible though I'm not educated enough to comment on that. But I do know that the question is separate from the Iraq War because the IW never truly aimed to establish an autonomous democracy.