U.S. Tired Of Promoting Democracy As Chavez Wins

Glenn Greenwald makes the point:

Hugo Chavez was overwhelmingly re-elected yesterday as Venezuela's President. Opposition to the United States played a significant role in his successful campaign, as he promised "a more radical version of socialism and [to] forge a wider front against the United States in Latin America."

Over the last two years, the Palestinians democratically elected Hamas leaders. The Lebanese have democratically elected Hezbollah to play a major role in their parliamentary government. The Iranian-allied militias in Iraq are led by factions with substantial representation in the democratically elected Iraqi Government. And the Iranian Hitler himself was democratically elected (just like Hitler the First was, long before the parade of all the new Hitlers).

If the leaders whom we are supposed to hate so much -- even the ones who are The Terrorists — keep getting elected democratically, doesn't that negate the ostensible premise of our foreign policy — that America-loving allies will magically spring up all over the world where there are democracies and they will help us fight The Terrorists?

(I'll hasten to add: Just wait until you see how much the next elected Iraqi government likes America.)

Heck... if you give it a quick moment's thought, the majority of all democratic elections in every country since late 2002 (when the Iraq war started) has given America fewer allies in the war on Saddam terror, instead of more. Spain? Gone. Italy? Gone. England? Soon to be gone.

Perhaps we can soon come to the realization that it may not be such a good idea for a country which is intensely disliked by much of the world's population on every continent to urge that leaders be chosen democratically, since, by definition, that will likely produce leaders who are hostile rather than friendly to the U.S. And if spreading democracy is going to be our central goal, then maybe it does matter after all what the rest of the world thinks, since that is what will determine who the leaders are of other countries.

(Mr. Right Wing Straw Man will obviously argue, "Well, we didn't mean 'democratic' as in 'a government that actually represents the majority of their people's opinion.' We know everybody hates America. We're not stupid. We mean quasi-democratic governments that we can bribe to like America, like Egypt for example.")