Civil unrest around the world

[sexobon]

Originally Posted by tw

... But again, the US government will not recommend that separation of church and state when encouraging another nation to become democratic. Not defining those principles up front has gotten US diplomacy boxed into a no-win situation in Egypt. ...

Americans think of lasting change as happening in 4 to 8 year iterations in consonance with our Presidential election cycle and term limitation. For others, lasting change may happen only over generations. Trying to segregate religion from their governments on our timetable may shock their core belief systems resulting in our ideology being summarily rejected. Change to that extent has to come from within; unless, we subjugate them for generations. They're not stupid, they already understand the underlying principles of our system. They also know that our system is only a 237 y.o. work in progress that still leaves a lot to be desired. Recognizing this is the situation, we choose to give them a taste of democracy by advocating free elections without making our support contingent upon the separation of church and state. Even if the resulting governments fail, the general population is learning more about the value of the right to self determination with each attempt. They'll get to a viable structure of government in their own time, despite setbacks, and maybe even come up with something better than ours! Unless of course you think we should just conquer them now.