It seems Israel just picked another fight beyond its borders

[delrem]

21. There are nuances.

The European and NA countries have graduated toward democracy *for themselves*, but even within those strictures only for segregated parts of themselves while remaining inertly complacent about gross inequalities until at point after point that complacency has been rudely interrupted. E.g. the struggle of Susan B. Anthony. But at the same time these proto- and semi-democracies have been enforcing and exploiting imperialist dictatorships over the people of other countries, raiding their resources and justifying the lot of it with some admirable spin.

The *ideas* of democracy and human rights belong to *reason*, not to countries. Instances can only be verified in situ and case by case. E.g. the USA can rightly call itself very democratic and rightly claim that it is an example of democracy, but it cannot rightly say that it has been "spreading democracy and freedom" throughout Central and South America, and the Far and Near East - except in very isolated instances ann argument might be made that some good came of it all. The USA might *say* it has, but in point of fact it hasn't -- and to the contrary it has contributed to the military overthrow of some democracies and in the case of Chile this was blatantly and self-righteously so (I believe it was Kissinger who said something awful about the innate goodness of the US saving the poor fools from their democratic selves).

As far as I can see the US has never come to terms with this history, and until it does IMO both it and its citizens should just STFU about how it should or could act in all its self-evident moral righteousness as "policeman of the world".