Quote Originally Posted by Subotan View Post
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".

Quote Originally Posted by alh_p View Post
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.