Hypocracy of the Neocons
Bob's post of a couple of days ago quoting Mr. Sharansky suggests the world is full of White Hats (democracies) which are our friends and Black Hats (tyrants, dictators and Mullahs) who are our enemies.
World politics has never been that symplistic. Encouraging democratic governments is fine in principle, but sometimes you cut deals with the devil because its better than the alternative. The Shah of Iran, Stalin, Pinochet, the South Vietnamese government, Afgan fundementalists, and yes even Saddam have been our allies in the past.
The principles announced in the inaugural address (echoing the "lofty principles" of PNAN and the Neocons) never includes the part which says if it is expedient to support a tyrant, that's OK too, if it furthers OUR PURPOSES.
Doesn't sound so lofty and well principled anymore, does it?
World politics has never been that symplistic. Encouraging democratic governments is fine in principle, but sometimes you cut deals with the devil because its better than the alternative. The Shah of Iran, Stalin, Pinochet, the South Vietnamese government, Afgan fundementalists, and yes even Saddam have been our allies in the past.
The principles announced in the inaugural address (echoing the "lofty principles" of PNAN and the Neocons) never includes the part which says if it is expedient to support a tyrant, that's OK too, if it furthers OUR PURPOSES.
Doesn't sound so lofty and well principled anymore, does it?
Comments
I recognize that this true. Sometimes, you have to make deals with people you would rather not: example Stalin in WWII. The Shah Is another. Now we are dealing with Pakistan because we really have no alternative.
But I still believe we should not cynically deal with dictators for mere profit. We should deal with dictatorships as a last resort. We should not consider only the best interest of America in the sort run, we need to take a longer range point of view and consider the situation of the suffering populations living under tyrants. In the long run, democracies are more likely to be our allies and not our enemies.