Wingnut QOTD

Glenn "Instahack" Reynolds:

WHY IS THE WORLD MORE CONCERNED with Musharraf's coup than with Hugo Chavez's emerging dicatatorship?  Because enemies of the United States, like Chavez, get a pass.

Right, Prof. Bag of Hammers, it's not the nukes, or the failed state on the border with Iran and Afghanistan, or the continuing advance of jihadi militantism (which you are usually quite keen on opposing), it's that people hate America so much they don't realize an authoritarian populist sitting on a bunch of oil and buying small arms is just as evil as al Qaeda. Why, give him a decade or so, and Chavez may become as bad as those Western Hemisphere dictators that the Right used to root for, like that guy Pinochet who used to have his military give the opposition free flying lessons by throwing them out of helicopters over rivers with their hands tied behind their backs. He murdered thousands and tortured tens of thousands more, and I think Ronald Reagan made sure never to forget to send him little presents on his birthday and at Christmas.

Comments

[Charles D]

You might also point out that Chavez has been repeatedly ELECTED to office in internationally certified fair elections. His popularity ratings in the country are almost triple those of our President, and he is doing nothing sinister that isn't also being done by President Uribe of Colombia, who is welcomed at the White House with open arms.

Obviously Musharref is serving the needs of Washington elites while Chavez is threatening to upset the IMF/World Bank applecart in Latin America by actually serving the needs of his people - a concept that seems to escape all "serious" politicians in the US.