> We should have more seriously considered deploying hard power to places that initially fell into authoritarian rule. I know Cuba was a failure and I know military action has serious consequences (especially for civilians), but compared to authoritarian governments wielding vast nuclear arsenals and ponderous economic weight... it's a tough choice.
I'm impressed how you blatantly assume that marching into some foreign country, guns blazing, will magically turn them into a liberal democracy.
I mean, your track record is abysmal. There are exceptions (eg Japan) but generally when the US puts boots on the ground somewhere, the place turns to shit.
Yeah I think trade and economic pressure is kind of the only other road; basically put authoritarianism in quarantine. I'm a little unsatisfied with that because it's hard to fully isolate anyone. We can't isolate China from Russia, for example, and it more or less just creates a club of authoritarian regimes. But like, realistically we couldn't have done anything about the Bolshevik revolution, or the rise of the CCP. Maybe we fucked up in the Korean War by stopping, but we failed in Cuba. It's a tough problem, and smarter, more experienced people than I have been trying to crack it for longer than I have.
I'm impressed how you blatantly assume that marching into some foreign country, guns blazing, will magically turn them into a liberal democracy.
I mean, your track record is abysmal. There are exceptions (eg Japan) but generally when the US puts boots on the ground somewhere, the place turns to shit.