With friends like these…

During the Cold War, the US propped up all manner of beast and bastard in an effort to thwart the spread of the Red Menace. Be it Pinochet in Chile, the horrible military dictatorship of post-war South Korea, or the Shah in Iran, we backed some pretty horrible individuals. In the realpolitik sense, the strategy succeeded in that Communism is pretty much a dead economic philosophy but it set a precedent on which our foreign policy operates today. Essentially, we substituted the Commies for Islamic radicals as the threat and viola; we have a rational for maintaining the corrupt and anti-democratic governments of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I understand the necessity of this. I firmly believe that having someone as bad as Musharraf in power is better than your average nut but the whole business is unsavory and wins us few friends. Nothing drives that point home better than when our buddy deports his political opponents. It sort of undercuts our whole freedom and democracy message, don’t you think?