Author: Editorial
Publication: The New York Times
Date: September 1, 2002
URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/01/opinion/01SUN1.html
For a nation that honors democracy
and freedom, the United States has a nasty habit of embracing foreign dictators
when they seem to serve American interests. It is one of the least appealing
traits of American foreign policy. Like his predecessors, President Bush
is falling for the illusion that tyrants make great allies. If Mr. Bush
is not careful, Washington will be mopping up for years from the inevitable
foreign policy disasters that come of befriending autocrats who maintain
a stranglehold on their own people.
When unsavory governments control
strategic locations or resources, the impulse to join hands with them can
be irresistible. In some cases, there may appear to be no practical alternative.
It would have been much more difficult to dislodge the Taliban and Al Qaeda
from Afghanistan without the cooperation of Pakistan's military ruler,
Gen. Pervez Musharraf. Washington's longstanding ties to the Saudi royal
family have ensured a steady flow of oil to the West for most of the last
60 years.
But there is a difference between
making alliances of convenience and uncritically working with dictators.
Washington should not repeat the mistake it has made so often in the past
by muting its support for democracy and human rights in these societies.
General Musharraf, the Saudis and other autocratic allies like President
Hosni Mubarak of Egypt rule repressive societies that become a breeding
ground for anti-American hostility. Terrorism will retreat where democracy
advances, not where autocrats muzzle political expression or buy peace
at home by financing violence abroad.
When Washington preaches democracy
while tolerating the tyranny of allies, America looks double-faced. That's
certainly the unflattering picture the world sees today. Mr. Bush has ordered
the government to dry up the funding of Islamic terrorism, but Saudi Arabia
is the principal financier of groups that promote such terrorism. The White
House is pressing the Palestinians to establish democratic institutions
while largely condoning the undemocratic actions of Mr. Mubarak. Vice President
Dick Cheney's recent calls for bringing democracy to Iraq ring hollow as
long as Washington is silent about General Musharraf's arbitrary rule in
Pakistan.
A long, unhappy history illustrates
the cost of cozying up to dictators. America still pays for its blind support
of the Shah of Iran. The blank checks Washington wrote to Gen. Zia ul-Haq
of Pakistan in the 1980's helped nurture what later became Al Qaeda. Decades
of misguided American support for Gen. Suharto in Indonesia and Mobutu
Sese Seko in Zaire, now Congo, left both countries a legacy of debt, violent
ethnic conflict and weak institutions. Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines
was another painful embarrassment.
The Bush administration seems to
have learned little from these costly mistakes. Meeting America's short-term
military and diplomatic needs should not require abandoning its democratic
principles.
