Quote Originally Posted by Xstr8guy View Post
Why is it OUR job to determine which country has democracy? I never could understand that. These nations have their own histories and cultures... why is it for the U.S. to determine how the people are ruled? If the citizens of country X are disatisfied, isn't it their duty to change things?

Sure, it is our duty as members of the U.N. to supply aid to the victims of tyrants and warlords. But democracy must be desired by the people for it to be effective. Many societies just don't grasp the concept and therefore don't appreciate it's postives.
Unfortunately, with the state of modern technology, the planet is now too small to just leave dictatorships to their own devices. The only countries that have long term peace between them are countries that have a democratically elected governments, and are doing business/trading with each other. Other sets of circumstances between countries seem to lead inevitably to conflict.

The reason that we leave Cuba alone, or poor countries in Africa, is that they don't have the resources to buy/build high tech weapons and deploy them around the world. So we leave them alone since they aren't a potential threat.

Oil has given middle eastern countries the means to buy weapons and use them so we have to address them.