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O'Donnell said China plotting to take over US

The US has long pursued a goal of democratization in the belief that stable democracies provide the most liberty to their people and are least inclined to pursue wars of aggression against their neighbors. I believe this to be true....up to a point. And that's the rub. There are cultures that just have different values. Their desires and values are incompatible with western democracy and concepts of individual freedom.

Will we learn from this? Probably not. Unfortunately, a huge segment of the American population is incapable of really deep thought and analysis. They don't have the patience to really study stuff (it's boring!) since they aren't in school and they didn't study in school anyway. They can't really understand that there are people who think in radically different patterns and don't want a world in our image. And they can't grasp that Maslow's hierarchy of needs may not be correct for all people.

Look at what we did in the Cold War. We sometimes overthrew democracies if we believed that it went with our best interests. Things like Iraq are anomalies and came about largely for reasons other than democratization. Whatever policymakers say about exporting our values, America still comes first.
 
Look at what we did in the Cold War. We sometimes overthrew democracies if we believed that it went with our best interests. Things like Iraq are anomalies and came about largely for reasons other than democratization. Whatever policymakers say about exporting our values, America still comes first.

Well, of course it does. But even during our exceptional behaviors during the Cold War, we tried to lace it with humanitarian or democratic intentions for the most part. Hell, even the Shah of Iran was liberalizing his country (too fast). But the Cold War is over. There is no longer a reason to support dictators or install them.
 
The US has long pursued a goal of democratization in the belief that stable democracies provide the most liberty to their people and are least inclined to pursue wars of aggression against their neighbors. I believe this to be true....up to a point. And that's the rub. There are cultures that just have different values. Their desires and values are incompatible with western democracy and concepts of individual freedom.

Will we learn from this? Probably not. Unfortunately, a huge segment of the American population is incapable of really deep thought and analysis. They don't have the patience to really study stuff (it's boring!) since they aren't in school and they didn't study in school anyway. They can't really understand that there are people who think in radically different patterns and don't want a world in our image. And they can't grasp that Maslow's hierarchy of needs may not be correct for all people.

Not much I can say, except to add, we're all guilty of irrational knee jerk reaction, but only a few can recognize when it happens and sometimes catch it before it permanently poisons our rational thinking.

ricksfolly
 
Well, of course it does. But even during our exceptional behaviors during the Cold War, we tried to lace it with humanitarian or democratic intentions for the most part. Hell, even the Shah of Iran was liberalizing his country (too fast). But the Cold War is over. There is no longer a reason to support dictators or install them.

I agree. I'm not trying to condemn the US or anything; I'm just pointing out that even we aren't going to cause the amount of harm a war with China would bring us to spread democracy.
 
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