Your way of thinking on whose part? Are you saying that opinionated Americans deserve credit for those peaceful democratic transitions? ... that American neoco

Your way of thinking on whose part? Are you saying that opinionated Americans deserve credit for those peaceful democratic transitions? ... that American neocons do? I have no problem with people in their own country deciding to dislike the regime and trying to act politically to change it. That's organic democracy. I have a big problem with armchair revolutionaries in the US encouraging people to sacrifice their own lives so in a revolution. Few political goals are worth anyone's life, and most people weighing in against China are part of various interest groups who stand to gain from China's turmoil or demise. It's only politicians who think that their own political goals/aspirations are worth the lives of others. How many lives is it worth to accelerate China's liberalization by one year? How many is it worth to make the Iraqi people have an election? I love the idea of organic, heroic revolution toward democracy and the creation of transparent, non-corrupt institutions as much as the next guy, but I have a big problem with American interests trying to spark revolutions around the world. I think westerners have a very strong bias about the sorts of institutions that may be viewed as democratic. I'd argue that, for example, Islam is a heavily decentralized, democratic institution. So I'm highly cynical when the US steps in, requires secularism, and picks winners and losers, while telling all of us sitting on our couches back in America that the reason is women's rights, etc. That's nonsense, the truth is that we just like picking winners and losers but our leaders have realized that they get a lot more mileage selling war when there is a set of underlying humanitarian talking points. Even in the absence of perfect political institutions, people lead happy, fruitful, day to day lives. They enjoy their work, their families, nice weather, food, etc. It takes tremendous hubris to tell someone somewhere else that he/she ought to get involved in a political struggle, that his/her country ought to be embroiled in conflict, that his/her children ought to know the sound of bombs or gunfire. As we learned in the Iraq fiasco, Americans fall for any romantic story about eradicating evil and bringing women's rights to the third world. I think it's time that people woke up and realized that the US has no moral high ground and that it's all about controlling resources and harming current and potential enemies (like China).