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The entire West could do this, and in 10 years time either the Russians or the Chinese would have filled the gap.

So then you've got a bunch of authoritarian regimes that are censoring the Internet, and the stability (perceived or otherwise) they've got is dependent on countries who don't care about human rights.

Giving easy soft power to the Russians and Chinese isn't ideal.

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Letting Russia and China fill that gap is in-line with the "good guy" position that The West likes to market itself as. It would also be much easier to draw the battle lines and get the population on board with a war when this distinction actually exists.

If The West continues to do the stuff that the bad guys do and use the reason "well, if we didn't do it they would" then what's the difference between The West and the bad guys?

That rationale you've proposed as akin to admitting that the Russians and Chinese are right.

As someone already said, it's a slippery slope to evil.

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