When democracy fails the US

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4861320.stm

I belong to a country with a chequered past when it comes to democracy. For many, many years, we heard successive American governments telling us how democracy was an absolute goal. It didn't matter whether elected governments robbed us blind. They were still elected, and hence inherently legal.

Starting with Hamas's clean and fair election to power, the Europeans are learning what the US should have learnt earlier from democracy in Latin America: the democratic process is no guarantee of a government "friendly" to Western interests. The US should have learnt that even earlier, with Chavez's rise to power, and as this BBC article points out, left-liberal, anti-US governments are being elected freely and fairly to power all over Latin America. How will the West deal with this outcome of democracy in action?

Oh, and could Iraq be the next place where an elected government is not overthrown ala Iran 1979 but turns away from its American friends because of perceived ethnic+security policies? Far-fetched? Read some of the reaction of the Shi'ites to American military response to ethnic strife there...