Ed Hudgins of the Objectivist Center nails it

Too Torturous a Journey to Freedom?
Or Are the People of the Middle East Fit for Freedom?
By Edward Hudgins

President Bush is correct that every individual deserves freedom. He is right
that a tolerant and peaceful Iraqi government and culture would be beneficial
for the citizens of that country, a model for the region and a bulwark against
terrorism. But we must ask a more basic question: Are the people of Iraq and
other countries in the region fit for freedom?

Any given Iraqi, Arab or Muslim might well want to live in peace with his or her
neighbors, foreign and domestic. But can we really expect limited governments
that respect individual liberty and ban arbitrary force to be established in
countries in which those principles are not written in the hearts and minds of
the enough of their citizens?

We should applaud those who risk their lives to establish such governments in
their own countries and to vanquish the self-destructive attitudes of their
fellow citizens or co-religionists. But we must understand that the people of
these countries ultimately must create for themselves modern, civil societies
and governments in their own cultural and historical contexts. If we fail to
appreciate the limits of the ability of we Americans -- the outsiders -- to
transform dysfunctional countries, we will only slow rather than hasten the day
of those countries' true liberation.

I don't know if he gets around to whether they're "fit for freedom" or not, but he does explain why nobody else is fit to judge that for them.