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Good post, Rose. It's absolutely true that the U.S. picks and chooses which dictators are "bad guys" based on what they can do for us (read: corporations). Flip through the pages of history--real history, not the nationalistic, biased stuff presented in the typical textbook--and you'll see a long string of evil dictators that we supported, often after overthrowing or at least helping to overthrow democratically elected leaders. In '53 we, along with the British, overthrew the elected prime minister of Iran because he was going to nationalize Iran's oil resources to benefit the Iranian people. That would have cut into the profits of British and American oil companies (not to mention our control of said resources), so we orchestrated a coup and insstalled the Shah, a brutal dictator. (Read Kinzer's "All the Shah's Men" for the full story.) Guatamala in '54 was a similar situation involving the United Fruit Company. Chile in '73 is another example of the U.S. using economic pressure and covert operations to undermine and overthrow an elected leader, Allende, so we could install a "friendly" dictator, Pinochet, who proceeded to murder, torture, and "disappear" thousands of his political opponents over a long reign of oppression of the Chilean people. And all along we looked the other way as these tyrants violated human rights and democratic ideals. Not only looked the other way, but also supported them. Likewise, we supported Hussein for decades, including the years during which he waged a war of aggression against Iran. The only time we stop supporting these guys is when it works to our advantage. These are only a few examples. Marcos in the Phillipines and Suharto in Indonesia are a couple others. We can only hope that someday we have leadership that consistently supports real democracy everywhere, not just in cases where it serves our interest.