See, He's OUR Petty Dictator By: Mark W Adams

NY Times QOTD:

"They would rather have a stable Pakistan — albeit with some restrictive norms — than have more democracy prone to fall in the hands of extremists."
TARIQ AZIM KHAN, Pakistan’s minister of state for information, describing American officials’ reaction to Gen. Pervez Musharraf’s suspending of the Constitution.

Nothing could possibly go wrong with this scenario . . . right?

Let's see,

• backing the forces of oppression in a populist democratic struggle -- check.
• not even considering sanctions of any kind against a regime that arbitrarily arrests any journalists, activists, lawyers and judges who speak out against oppression -- check.
• ignoring the detention of human rights advocates as a dictator suspends elections and usurps a nation's courts -- check.
  

• Spreading democracy and freedom throughout the Middle East -- PRICELESS