The United States has shown itself to be a threat to developing democracies

1. Texas- It's easy to twist this one, especially with the legend of the Alamo and all. Before 1821, Texas was a part of Mexico. The United States wanted the territory, so US citizens began to settle there. Eventually, because the US population in Texas claimed that they deserved to be a part of the US, they revolted. It was an obvious case of imperialist expansion, as was the later Spanish-American war. Mexico was actively avoiding conflict, and they were trying as hard as possible to remain friendly with the US, but the US government purposely continued to provoke Mexico. The US took every step that they could to make sure that Mexico could not remain friendly. The US army was sent over the border to harass Mexican citizens and incite violence to make it look like Mexico wanted to fight. The US army was just as brutal as Santa Anna's. The point is that the US didn't rescue Texas from Mexico, they took it by force. And the ragtag US resistance were not under dog heroes, they were settlers laying claim to a piece of land that they had no right to take. http://www.globalsecurity.org... 2. Liberia- I'll give you this one, although it's more of an example of the good intentions of individuals pushing the government to act. 3. France- First of all, we liberated Europe from fascism during World War II, not communism. Secondly, the European countries that we liberated were powerful countries with empires of their own. They certainly do not qualify as developing democracies. And thirdly, we liberated the European countries because they were our allies, not specifically because they were democracies. 4. Libya - Helping to overthrow a dictator does not translate to creating a democracy. Not that there was anything wrong with helping out the rebels, in fact it was the right thing to do, but it remains to be seen what happens to the country. 5. South Korea - Its funny that you should mention South Korea, because it was actually a protectorate of the United States for a long time, as was Japan. In fact, from the 1940s until 1993, South Korea was ruled by US backed dictatorships. In one instance, during a pro-democracy student revolt, government troops cracked down and massacred students with bayonets and flamethrowers. To be sure, South Korea is an infinitely better country to live in than their communist neighbor, but until the 1990s the government was so wracked by corruption that it could not be considered a democracy. And the US government liked it that way, because it ensured that an unfriendly ruler would not take power. Just because the US supported the South in the Korean war does not mean that we were fighting on the side of democracy. South Korea was already a corrupt dictatorship even during the Korean war. The war was about communism versus capitalism, and as you can see from my earlier examples, capitalism does not equate to democracy. http://www.globalsecurity.org... My first 3 examples still stand. The one constant theme here is that the US government will almost always choose to make a dictatorship rather than a democracy, not because of some sinister agenda, but because of convenience. If the US sets up a democracy, the voters might (GASP!) not choose to support exploitative US companies and to keep intrusive US military bases in their country. It's much easier to just set up a dictatorship that is guaranteed to support the US because they are being paid off and then just look the other way when that government cracks down on its people.