December 27, 2005

Libs Criticize U.S. History of Supporting Dictators - Yet Support Those Same Dictatorships Today

It's a common criticism made by the Left, that the U.S. contributed to the existence of Islamic dictatorships by supporting dictators in decades past. Per Victor Davis Hanson :

One, oil thirst increasingly became the overriding consideration, even in areas like Palestine, Lebanon, or Egypt, where there was very little petroleum, but enough instability to affect the larger allegiance of Islamic oil-exporting nations. Earlier rivalry among Western nations had morphed into collective fear of the ever-growing Chinese-energy appetite — always colored by the specter of past oil boycotts, shooting at tankers in the Gulf, and perennial terrorist threats against the oilfields. So if a nation pumped oil, then its government avoided scrutiny.

Two, anti-Communism was another stimulus, specifically the effort to keep the Soviet Union and its satellites from controlling the Persian Gulf, or using their Baathist surrogates to promote petrol-fed anti-Western terrorism. Much of the mess of the Middle East today derives from a Soviet-style, unworkable, amoral state apparatus imposed upon a traditional tribal society at various times in Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Libya, Syria, and Yemen — and our own desperation to support any unsavory autocrat who would stop such Communists. So if a strongman fought Communists, he was O.K. with us.

However, similar behavior can be seen among Liberals today, who do everything they can to prevent such dictators from being overthrown. 

They oppose the war in Iraq, which deposed Hussein.

They shout that 'we cannot win in Iraq' and that our troops are 'terrorizing' Iraqis.

They criticize the bringing of Democracy to Iraq:

In perhaps the stupidest move in American political history, the mainstream Democratic party got suckered into buying Howard Dean’s shady investments in American failure — and so turned its back on the Iraqi democratic experiment hours before millions went to the polls in that country’s third and most successful free election.

Now that Iraq has had successful Democratic elections, instead of praising GWB's policies, they ignore them. As Hanson puts it:

Why still no big-font, front-page headlines screaming, “Millions Vote in Historic Middle East Election!” or “Democracy Comes At Last To Iraq” or “America’s Push for Iraqi Democracy Working”?

The Left has little ground to criticize a past U.S. policy, that the Left itself is currently following.