I am sincerely and genuinely perplexed when I see you and individuals who, like you, espouse such 'foreign' points of view. And I don't mean foreign as in your nationality or where you happen to live, although I'm sure that plays a part, but foreign as in, completely separate and often in opposition to the most agreeable ideas.
The United States has backed dictators before when they were the best alternative possible and those diplomatic moves turned out pretty well.
In backing Augusto Pinochet in Chile and Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines we prevented Communist takeovers that would have been what Communism needed to survive and thrive in SE Asia and in South America.
We didn't like supporting them, and the critics screamed loudly about both moves, but we did what had to be done. Then, when the times made it possible to do we urged them both to consider change.
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With a viable democratic alternative at hand, the Reagan administration turned about and decisively helped push the two dictators out of power. Under Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia Paul Wolfowitz, we supported Corazon Aquino’s “people power” revolution in the Philippines and arranged a Hawaii exile for Marcos. Under Assistant Secretary of State for Latin America Elliot Abrams, we pushed Pinochet into a referendum that he lost, thereby ushering the transition to today’s flourishing Chilean democracy.
Charles Krauthammer on Pakistan on National Review Online |