"This is the point in the history of this whole Iraq debacle where clear, rational, pragmatic people start to admit that giving the Iraqis a full Democracy would lead to predictable consequences, ones that would end up being detrimental to our national interests. As historians will no doubt mention, this was the point in which American policy makers had to decide whether they wanted a stable U.S. friendly colony in the Middle East with military access and oil reserves, or an Islamic democracy hostile to our interests. "They had no choice". The Democrats agreed. Then presidential candidate John Kerry had already called for a similar solution to the "Iraq Problem". Liberal pundits had agreed that it was the only way to fix the "mess that Bush made". They all agreed that American intentions were good but things "didn't go as expected".