> if those autocracies were converted to democracies
That's the key flaw of that theory, you'd need War in the first place to change the power in place in such countries, and even in Iraq where this was actually done, the actual democracy you get out of it is dubious at best.
To clarify, are we talking about what the theory is, or whether the theory is correct? Because I'm trying to explain the former, while you seem to be going at the latter.
The theory exists. That it's flawed isn't something I dispute. I pretty much think that the theory of democratic peace, as well as the idea that democracies are magically economic engines of amazingness, are complete wishful thinking and hindsight justification for people who can't grasp why we'd do democracy for its own sake.
That's the key flaw of that theory, you'd need War in the first place to change the power in place in such countries, and even in Iraq where this was actually done, the actual democracy you get out of it is dubious at best.