Reply #30: If the U.S. and other Western powers would accept

[sabrina 1]

the will of the people and the leaders they choose, then maybe these revolutions would have a chance of succeeding in the beginning of the building of democracies. But our own history shows that when people do rise up, as in Iran eg, the U.S. has historically (Cuba and Venezuela, Ecuador, Honduras et al) worked against the people's choice, using often as you point out, the CIA and the most brutal elements in countries where we have 'interests' to destabilze those democracies.

These policies have not worked. Latin America was the first to throw off the chains of dictatorship and Western influence in their affairs. But the U.S. stubbornly refuses to let go of its old, failed, cold war strategies and while working against the emerging democracies in that region of the world, continued to support the corrupt, genocidal Colombian regime.

Now, it's Africa and Arab states rising up against these policies.

I think the time has come for the U.S. to start supporting the people, rather than the corrupt corporations who have destroyed so many countries, their environments, their people, their traditions and their freedoms.

A new attitude is required by the Western Powers, or as you pointed out re Iran, it is far more likely for extremism to take hold after the initial success of overthrowing the dictatorships when Western powers refuse to accept the will of the people and become their enemy, further entrenching extremism and guaranteeing its success.

Quite frankly imho, it is shameful that we still support so many of the world's worst dictators, in Uzbekistan and elsewhere. We need to 'move forward' and help the world become a more democratic place. History will not record our role in the misery inflicted on so many millions of people very favorably.

Having said all that, I do agree with you that we cannot predict the outcome of these uprising, I can only say that listening to the people's list of 'grievances', they are not that different from those attached to the Declaration of Independence. The outcome of that revolution could have been very different also.