Ever noticed the the US seems to have blinders on when it comes to some dictators? That is until they are NO longer needed. Just look at Noriega, Saddam, Mubarak….these men were perfectly fine as long as they were useful….and then we dropped the hammer on them…..turning them from “good guy” to “evil dictators”…..we have a long history of backing the wrong dudes.
As long as these strongmen play ball with the US and its corporations then they are free to do as they please….but as soon as they run afoul of the corporate structure then they must go. Saddam is a good example….he was a fine “ally” until he nationalized the oil industry and cut out the massive profits for oil companies and then he had to go…..and he finally did.
It is fascinating how some are dictators and others we will tolerate their abuses…….
Sometimes it seems that if not for double standards, Official Washington would have no standards at all – especially when it comes to outrage against some “strongmen” and excuses for others, as Lawrence Davidson describes.
The United States has been, and continues to be, selective about which foreign strongmen it does and does not support. Among the latter, there have been Saddam Hussein in Iraq, Bashar al-Assad of Syria, Muammar Gaddafi of Libya, the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in Iran, Hugo Chavez in Venezuela (who was not as autocratic as publicly portrayed), Fidel Castro in Cuba, and Vladimir Putin in Russia. These are just a few of those recent rulers who have drawn the wrath of the “democratic” exemplars in Washington. That wrath often includes economic strangulation, CIA plots and even invasion.
In the meantime, another group of autocrats is well tolerated by the U.S. Among this group are Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, Egypt’s General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, and various European rightwing politicos such as Viktor Orban of Hungary. Each of these strongmen shows little tolerance for dissent and a ready willingness to exploit racially tinged nationalism.
Source: Washington’s Outrage and Excuses – Consortiumnews
Who will be the next strongman to feel the wrath of a nation like the US?