Ball Johnson is right

The more "conservative" those entrusted with intelligence activities or diplomacy are, the more they tend to entwine America with non-democratic governments. I see it as part of their "government should be run like a business" mantra; the reality is that they think very little of democracy.

Problem is a CEO is able to get away with being dictatorial because his or her workers have an escape: They are not under that petty tyrant's control around the clock, and if things get too bad, they can always quit. But that doesn't scale to the level of nations because an equally bad leader of a nation leaves their people only the choice between fleeing their country or destroying that leader.

At its most basic level, of course, our "conservatives" choose America's "friends" based upon how profitable the relationship promises to be. That profitability can ebb...there have been leaders who failed to carefully weigh how new markets or the discovery of valuable resources elsewhere impacted the balance sheets of America's "conservatives" - and they consequently ended up being overthrown and/or dead.

But as the nominal "friend" of that leader, all too often the United States of America - again, because our government is contaminated with greed masquerading as "conservative" thinking - ends up being permanently linked to that leader in the eyes of his or her people.