Quote Originally Posted by carl View Post
This is the same argument current in the Cold War. Should we support states that are on the front line against Communism even though they do not perfectly reflect our values? Should we stick by South Korea or Taiwan even though their govs are pretty rough? We often decided to do so because they rather more closely reflected our values than did the Reds and their govs were a damn sight less rough than the Reds. It worked out to our advantage I think.
In some cases yes, in some cases not so much. They weren't all Taiwan and South Korea: we also ended up harnessed to a fair number of thuggish dictators who were as corrupt and ineffective as they were brutal, and who turned out to be substantial liabilities rather than assets. These situations have to be evaluated, and regularly re-evaluated, on a case to case basis, we can't simply assume that anyone who's fighting people we don't (or claims to be fighting people we dislike) like is necessarily and automatically deserving of support.