...Lest you misunderstand, Mr. Lewis isn't a man who believes that democracy--however alien--cannot work in the Middle East. He believes it can. But he's a crusty realist: "Democracy is a strong medicine, which you have to give to the patient in small, gradually increasing doses. If you give too much too quickly, you kill the patient." But give you must. After all, "we've given the administration in Afghanistan, a place far more backward--and Iraq is not, by the region's standards, backward--an Afghan face. Why not the same for Iraq?" Of course the more complex devices of democracy--such as federalism, with its centrifugal pulls--must wait. "I'm not sure a federal constitution will work in Iraq. It's too sophisticated at this stage. Relaxation of authority has to come gradually. You can't create a functioning democracy overnight."...