Bush doesn't really care about the level of "freedom" or "democracy" in Iraq. To him, those are just meaningless buzzwords used to garner support for American economic interests. Of course any country which accepts shari'a (Islamic law) as the basis of its legislation is not going to have democracy: the rules are coming from official religious doctrine, not from the people. This is not only unfair for the non-Muslims in Iraq who are forced to conform to Islamic religious tenets, it undermines the ability of the Iraqi people to improve on rules established over a millennium ago, such as the aforementioned irreconciliable problems with women's rights. Shari'a and freedom obviously cannot co-exist, since shari'a draws no distinction between political and religious life. It is submission to the religious opinions of the theocrats in power, the submission of the present to the dictates of the past, and contrary to the core principle of any democratic theory of organization â?? that the people should possess the power to run and change society as they see fit. The new Iraq, if it accepts shari'a law, is bound to become just as brutal as the previous rĂ©gime.