Nice Euphemism Tom

Yes; When the United States "intervened" in 2003, apparently we didn't attack, or invade, or occupy, or Bomb The Snot Out Of Iraq. It was more like we faced them down and sent them to a 30 day rehab. Like Charlie Sheen. "Ok Iraq, we're taking you off to Betty Ford's for a nice little rest". "U.S. intervention in Iraq" . A few hundred thousand wounded/maimed/dead, and its an Intervention! For the rest, Thomas is, as usual, pretty perceptive regarding the miasma that is Iraq. But still, there are those little-mentioned elements that are so hard to sniff out, one might think there was some denial involved. Why is there such a uniform assumption that everybody loves an Election? In fact, most times most places throughout history, "Free, Democratic Elections" aren't how people select their leaders; or they've been pretty thoroughly corrupted. As for the outcome of such a process being welcomed, I have one example: USA 2000. Ok, another: USA 2008. Lots and lots of people did not consider the eventual selectee for President to be legitimate. The other rarely mentioned factoid about Iraq's elections: the various elective offices are not open to all citizens. There's a Religious Qualification for the office of President, Prime Minister, and, for all I know, Assistant to the Assistant Undersecretary of American Military Cooperation. For some offices, you gotta be Shi'te; for others, Sunni. I think there's a few slots for Kurds, also. Reservations Required.
We distorted our version of elections pretty mightily to get our Puppet Government installed. And looking at the historical record with regard to US Puppets, the next government won't hold up very long.
I personally am trying to decide which government to bet to beat the spread: Iraq or Afghanistan.