Commenting on Publius

What Dean said.

To many people around the world, it seems more "about installing pro-West regimes." That's what the media say, and the whole concept of democracy being installed by another country seems hypocritical to many people ("if you want us to choose our government ourselves, why do you intefrere?")

I don't agree with such logic, but it is persuasive, and we need to remember that when we spend money on promoting democracy. I think the main problem is that America wants results quickly, while democacy takes generations to develop, and promotion of democacy from abroad is not a short-term project. It's hard to have policies that are sustained regardless of who's in the White House, etc., which I think is the way to go.