[quantim]

I'm for democracy, but imposing democracy is an oxymoron.

Somebody needs to explain to this nitwit the difference between a democracy and a representative republic.

[ClaireSolt]

This idea is repeated often, but it needs to be challenged. "imposing democracy is an oxymoron. People have to choose democracy, and it has to come up from below." First, we are doing something very much like we did after WWII in Germany, Japan, and Korea, and they have worked well enough to say that democracy can be imposed. But, more important, we have never gone in anywhere where we weren't being urged to support one side over another.

Moreover, the realpolitique she espouses is not a progressive idea, but had its origins in the Congress of Vienna 1815 which was a reactionary defense of the old order after the French Revolution. We saw after 9/11 that it had brought us allies we didn't agree with, especially Saudi Arabia.