Western foreign policy, when push comes to shove: Democracy sacrificed for Stability?

[Idaho]

OK I admit it was unfair for me to ask you about something specific like that. But I still feel it shows that the USA wants to spread democracy, but doesn't see the support of autocratic regimes a terrible thing in comparison to the alternative (Communism, Radical Islamists etc.), which I would say isn't that bad for the world's only super power.

I think the US primarily wants allied and controllable client states. If they are democratic, then that's a bonus. In the words of Churchill "The US can always be relied on to do the right thing, after they have exhausted all other options".

You do have to acknowledge Frag's point that there does exist a minority in favour of a caliphate and all that jazz though.

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democracies are not born without strife and take a while to settle.

A minority of people believe all sorts of crap! Don't 50% of Americans think 9/11 was a hoax and Obama is a muslim?

It's true - democracies do often have difficult births - and sometimes they produce results that other countries don't like - Gaza for example. But we either believe in democracy or we don't. Once you start cherry-picking, that defeats the whole point.