whatithink
GOLD
The Shah was a dictator (from 1941-79), who worked for us irrespective of the consequences - and yes, the Ayatollah was pure evil and his junkies since. We also loved Batista in Cuba, and that worked out excellently. What about the Southern Vietnamese autocrats from 1954 onward! There's Pinochet in Chile to add to the mix. Our judgement (or lack thereof) doesn't appear to be party specific.I don't necessarily disagree with you on Iraq, but if we're going back in time, a much greater intelligence failure occurred under the Carter administration which led to the fall of the Shah. Granted the Shah was not perfect, but the Ayatollah was pure evil and was the primary reason for the destabilization of the Middle East which obviously exists until this day.
TBH, the US is pretty shit at the whole geopolitics thing when it comes to dictators/autocrats because we couldn't give a crap about the people. Backing autocrats and dictators never ends well. One would hope that lesson is well learned ... wait, the suggestions that the PLA under Abbas (who couldn't be more unpopular in both Gaza & the West Back) should control Gaza show nothing has been learned.