Quote:
Originally Posted by bullseyebarb
Perfectly fine for Communists, Fascists and Islamic rads, et al to spread their poison throughout the world....but heaven forbid that Western democracies should resist this or attempt to help others do the same. Oh, OK then.
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If there were any consistency to the USA sticking to its principles and only supporting democracies, or even leaders edging towards democracies, I might well agree with you. However, we have not done so. We have very generously supported all sorts of criminal and corrupt dictatorships, sometimes even against those within their country who were seeking democracy. Noriega, the Shah of Iran, the Saudi royals, Pinochet, Vietnam's Diem and Thieu, Saddam Hussein, and the ugly list goes on and on. We've not fooled much of anyone, save for those who uncritically believe only what they are asked to. That's why most of the country and most of the world believes that the USA is currently headed in the wrong direction.
As a patriotic American, I beleive that we should always practice what we preach. In the long term, it would help to spread our values to other countries, it would restore much of the trust our government has lost at home, and it would help to restore the world's good opinion of the USA.