Regarding Applebaum's 1956 article, I would quibble about a few details, and one serious omission: her leaving out that the rebellion included part of the communists, which was one reason the Eisenhower government wasn't too enthusiastic about support.

The analogy carries on to that so-called "democracy promotion" in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Iran. So-called because upon close inspection, it is purposeful window dressing in the first two cases, ignorant rhetoric for the service of conflict buildup in the last -- e.g. even less than words without deeds, words covering other deeds. Now the Western leaders' problem with a true promotion of democracy is that it is quite likely to produce an empowering of various Islamists, including ones associated with terrorism (as seen in different contexts in Iran, Algeria, Lebanon, yes Iran again, Palestinian Autonomy, Pakistan's tribal areas, Iraq).

Multi-Million Dollar Question: What is the best and practical and realistic way to defeat the beast?

Methinks that beast is a rather minor beast blown out of proportion, much smaller and wreaking much less havoc than the beasts of small-arms smuggling, African militias, deforestation business, unchecked global corporations meddling in the previous, water pollution, oil depletion, global warming, and yes Western military and economic policies outside the West. It should have been waaay down the priority list.

It is also not a monolythic beast as Westerners are made to think about it, meaning that whatever policies we'd think about, there is no one-fits-all. The latter philosophy will sooner or later make the policy some form of elimination, leaving no room for policies like prompting of change of tactics by engagement, delegitimisation by addressing problems serving as their causes.

There is also the issue ignored by many starry-eyed European liberals just like US neocons, the issue of practicality. People are rather ignorant about how "peacekeeping" looks on the ground, and to what extent they have been failures lately. One could just recall how Bundeswehr soldiers just stood by on force protection during the major anti-Serbian riots in Kosovo a few years back. Or just the other day, regarding the Afghanistan mission, we read about British 'peacekeepers' screwing up counter-insurgencyby repeating every error of the Americans, and illustrating that, an account of constant heavy battles faced by British troops who just aren't in control.

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}