re: #60 RogueOne

I didn’t say not to deal with them, but they don’t have to be our ‘allies’. Ally, to me, indicates that we feel that the values, aims, behavior of our governments or societies are compatible. I think that during the Cold War, we got into the habit of endorsing countries and leaders who were satisfactorily anti-communist, even if they were, really, anti-democracy as well. I think that this is a continuation of this habit, where we are friendly with regimes that are little more than thugocracies, because they have percieved strategic value to us.

One of the rationalizes, post-facto, for the invasion of Iraq, was that Saddam was a deeply evil man and that the civil liberties of Iraqi’s were severely curtailed, that Saddam’s thugs could do whatever they wanted without fear of repercussion. This looks like exactly the same thing to me.