democracy in iraq?

As long as we're still claiming that spreading democracy (not WMD) was our rationale for invading Iraq, can't we at least try to avoid BACKSLIDING on women's rights there in the process? Women, if they weren't being raped by Saddam's sons, at least had much better rights in Saddam's secular (albeit brutal) Iraq than in most other Arab states, particulary before the first Gulf War -- and better than they would have under sharia law, as the current draft of the new Iraqi constitution envisions.

If we're going to use democracy as our excuse for invading and occupying a country, we should at least make it a reasonable model. Not all democracies have to look just like that of the US -- but basic rights for women, such as the ability to marry whom they wish, should be a minimum standard.