Some funny stuff here and there, but Zakaria’s line about the US promoting democracy only in strategically irrelevant countries would hold more water if we weren’t fighting for democracy in Afghanistan and Iraq right now. Neither is strategically irrelevant by any stretch of the imagination: Afghanistan was al Qaeda’s home base and Iraq is one of the world’s most oil-rich countries and it’s smack dab in the middle of the Middle East. Both have held elections and are on the route to democracy. When it comes to efforts to stabilize Afghanistan and Iraq, the US isn’t the problem. Zakaria’s theory would also hold more water if we hadn’t persuaded the Saudis to hold local elections for the first time in its history a couple of years back. It would hold even more water if Benazir Bhutto’s assassination hadn’t been preceded by a US attempt to jump start Pakistan’s democracy. That effort was what lured her back to Pakistan in the first place.

As a wise blogger is fond of saying, democracy is a process, not an event. Zakaria would do well to remember that when he’s tossing out witty lines for cheap laughs on Jon Stewart’s stage.