[dragonwriter]

> So you can either support the right of the people to overthrow an authoritarian regime and establish a democratic process that will lead to a fundamentalist islamic state, or you can support a regime that is authoritarian but will allow the practice of some western liberal values.

> Which is it, and why?

It has to be the former, because the latter is unsustainable and builds further local opposition to liberal values equating them with shams covering Western imperialism in the service of commercial interests of foreign elites (because in that case that's exactly what they are, once you limit “liberal values” to those that can be enjoyed without giving substantive power to local opposition to the Western-imposed regime.)

Of course, the thing is, the actual motivation, not just the incidental result, is commercial imperialism in the Middle East—“liberal values” are an excuse, access to and influence over global markets for resources (particularly oil) are the actual critical concern.