But yeah, I agree, selection bias, the particular post WWII era of history, etc.
I was thinking about this in the context of the multi-polar world order emerging, and Russia, Gulf Arab Countries, and China pursuing common geopolitical interests. Kind of tangential to war per se, but still touches upon the whole "democracies tend to align and buy into the neoliberal world order"
A lot of people would paint this as a bunch of right-wing autocratic regimes grouping up together and see that as one of the more salient things about such alignment. But really, if the Gulf Arab countries were more democratic, they would only be acting more independently of the Western geopolitical sphere. And I think China would also be pursuing a similar course if it were a democracy. The more those populations view themselves as sovereign peoples, the more they wouldn't want to play nice with a world order whose agenda isn't always aligned with what they want or think is right, or which they feel doesn't accord them sufficient respect, etc.
For example, they are now all using the current stage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to call out Western hypocrisy, etc. (For China and Russia, this is just trollish behavior, because of course Russia is doing something similar in Ukraine, and China is doing something similar to the Uighurs, and they know it, and everyone knows it). For the Gulf Arab countries, this is hypocritical in the sense that they are beneficiaries of American foreign policy hypocrisy (see, e.g., Yemen) Certainly, as far as the Arabs go here, it is difficult to imagine they would be somehow less interested in doing so were they democracies (though I don't think they'd be doing what they are doing in Yemen if they were)
I think the above makes me come across as having some kind of really left view of foreign policy or something lol. But I have mostly liked the neoliberal world order, and I don't think that a multipolar world where Russia/Gulf/China are more powerful is good. I have reasons I dislike all of those countries. Anyone who thinks they are somehow better than the US and that the Western portrayal of their evils is merely propaganda is pretty naive, IMO.
However, I do wish the Palestinians and others weren't considered disposable or worse. On that issue, American foreign policy is quite nakedly immoral and senseless, and I do feel it undermines the credibility of the country to the point where I and others are willing to shrug at the American world order's slow collapse.