In a very real and genuine sense, to most Americans "democracy and freedom" is simply whatever the USA does. This sentiment is then, after the fact, stitched into acceptability by these sorts of intellectual deflections.
It is understandable. The Netherlands is democracy to comes closest to ancient Athens. Twenty different political parties represented in parliament. A people who for 500 years have never agreed upon anything.
Liechtenstein and some Swiss cantons are the few remaining examples of direct democracy.
Athens killed Socrates using an authoritarian law after all.
Any state, democracy included, can be a tyrant (i.e. cruel and oppressive) against its perceived enemies.
Is it? It seems incredibly stupid to me. It's putting 'strength', or intensity and effectiveness of action, above whether the action is a good idea or even makes sense. It seems to make competence secondary.