Quote:
Originally Posted by neo45
As sad as it is it is usually safer to leave the brutal dictator in power than it is to intervene. Iraq is a good example of this. North Korea is currently a brutal dictatorship but the West intervening would ultimately make things worse for the innocent people. Exporting democracy simply isn't possible in certain places. To do so would take decades of consistent foreign policy, which in a country like the US that has a new president every 4 or 8 years, simply isn't going to happen
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You cannot export democracy to tribal societies. Democracy functions only in places where there is loyalty to the nation. That allows for peaceful transfer of power - the Democrats and Republicans hate each other, but in the end they know that each is American first and foremost. In the Middle East and most of Africa the first loyalty is to the clan and/or tribe and/or sect, so politics becomes a zero-sum game. You cannot afford to lose power. You can bring in democracy, but it will be of the "one man, one vote, one time" sort. There are certainly exceptions to be found here and there, but the rule holds.