Quote Originally Posted by Bob's World View Post
Freedom house rankings are based on how the populaces of each country feel. It is not some western team showing up with a western ruler and judging by western perspectives.
A few clips from what Freedom House says, here:

http://www.freedomhouse.org/template...=341&year=2008

The survey operates from the assumption that freedom for all peoples is best achieved in liberal democratic societies.
The survey findings are reached after a multilayered process of analysis and evaluation by a team of regional experts and scholars
The Freedom House rankings are measurements of how close a given state comes to the Western ideal of liberal democracy. They do not and do not claim to measure a populace's perceptions of its government.

You stated that the insurgent populaces of Iraq and Afghanistan are the least of our problems, and I asked which insurgent populaces you believe to be greater problems. You stated that you support empowerment, and I asked whom you propose to empower, and how. These are not efforts to twist or distort, I'm simply seeking clarification of comments you made. Given that these are quite central to the matter under discussion, I think those questions deserve answers.