Maybe the real reason we fought the Cold War

[jurph]

...was to keep the various Soviet states from discovering capitalism. We had convinced them that it was evil and decadent and then we went ahead and took the lead in the world economy. Turns out that the Russians absolutely understand the concepts of capitalism.

Here, for example, is an article about how holograms that certify "authentic"

Comments

[waltermonkey]

Given that many of them would clearly rather blow themselves up, I'm gonna go with no.

[roninspoon]

In time, but not without a major reformation, which is exactly what's happening now. Democracy can not be delivered by a third party, it has to be earned by a population willing to culturally accept it. Kind of like condors who can't survive if they are given assistance emerging from their eggs.

Israel managed it.