Ending mass murder in other countries by a short invasion is extremely cost-efficient, but the idealists and the military-industrial complex often extend the imperial involvement for the self-serving reasons of, respectively, changing the invaded societies in America’s image and earning profits. America’s image is a function of America’s economic opportunities; most other peoples are less developed and industrious. America uniquely collected the entrepreneurial cream of many other societies; people who long for unhindered economic opportunities naturally prefer political freedom. Other nations prefer the personal or economic safety of dictatorships; common Iraqis were safer under Saddam’s rule than under the current democratic strife. Few Iraqis appreciate the freedom of driving from Fallujah to Baghdad at a speed of no less than 120 miles per hour trying to avoid ambushes. It is simplistic for America to imagine that a few years of occupation can change the historical development of societies. Iraq didn’t become a liberal democracy in its thousands years of statehood, and won’t become liberal after a few years of American troops staying in the Green Zone.

America wouldn’t have been happy if Australia had attacked it in 1902 or Russia in 1917 to force women’s suffrage, which America adopted relatively late, in 1920. Japan abolished slavery in 1588 and Britain, in practice, in 1772, but didn’t force the slaves’ rights upon America, which only banned slavery in 1865. Nor did the United States fight Saudi Arabia, which abolished slavery only in 1962. Many rights taken as self-evident now were not so widespread until surprisingly recently. The women of France, Italy, and Switzerland didn’t vote in national elections until after WWII. Black voters were severely restricted in America before 1965. America lowered the voting age from 21 to 18 only in 1971, while the voting age in Iran is a very liberal 15 years.

The Torah implies a generally democratic rule when stating an exception, “You shall not follow the multitude to evil,” but elders rather than any one individual governed the towns. The status of elder is a matter of experience: Bush clearly does not qualify for election, while someone like Kissinger probably does. Non-democratic Mubarak is better for Egypt than the democratically elected Muslim Brotherhood.

Developed, stable, economically consensual societies usually opt for some kind of a democracy. People there want safety and have no urgent needs that push them to infringe upon others. People in homogenous societies have no institutional enemies and respect others’ opinions. Happy societies are alike democratic while discontented societies choose various modes of statehood which, depending on the local situation, provide the best chance for safety. In Afghanistan of 2004, democratic elections offered protection from the warlords, and the population flocked to vote for the American quisling president.

America opposed the Soviet attempts at centralized economic planning, but adopted an even more vile approach of planning and consciously changing societies. Complex adaptive systems cannot be planned. America would do best just to defuse immediate humanitarian crises and let countries develop on their own.