Dictators and Hypocrisy

Col. Moammar Gadhafi was interviewed by ABC's George Stephanapoulos on Sunday. It was fun to see the Libyan dictator decked out in his wild safari outfit. But halfway through the interview, I began to wonder why I was listening to a dictator talk about peace and democracy?

It started me thinking about all the other strange contradictions we often accept without question. For example, the U.S. has been asked to recruit the Arab League to help turn Iraq into a free-market democracy. The problem is there is not one free-market democracy among members of the Arab League.

Then there's the United Nations (search). Contradictions at the UN jump out at you. Like Iraq being placed on the disarmament committee. Or placing Cuba on the human rights committee, just as Fidel began a vicious new crackdown on political dissents.

We probably wouldn't accept psychiatric care from a babbling, demented psychiatrist. So why do we take advice on human rights and democracy from dictators? I'm just asking.

And that's the Asman Observer.