A person is tempted to be cynical, thinking about US foreign policy now, esp re the "Arab Spring". Obama gets flack for not interceding forcefully to oust Assad in Syria, but he's right. We can't fight for the good guys because there are no good guys.
This article discusses what happens after a democratic/populist uprising. Here's an excerpt:
"Most troubling, democracy’s winners all too often turn out to have little respect for democratic institutions. Like Chávez, they are prone to rewriting the constitutions they inherit to concentrate their power. In the name of ousting the old order, they purge courts and the media and repopulate them with their own followers. They then subject peaceful opponents to political prosecutions, fill the airwaves with their propaganda and shut down civil society groups, especially those with connections to the West.
They sometimes resort to violence, as well, though usually not by using security forces. Instead, Chávez, Thaksin and Morsi organized their own irregular gangs of thugs and sent them out to attack their critics.
Faced with all this, it’s not surprising that elites have risen up. The mass marches of the middle classes began in Caracas in 2002; this month they are out in force in Bangkok and Kiev. This year, they were in Istanbul’s Taksim square. Their grievances are legitimate. Their rulers are depriving them of freedoms and, in most cases, wrecking the economy."
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