Mideast Payback Worries Washington By Michael Winship

Mideast Payback Worries Washington By Michael Winship February 4, 2011

Editor’s Note: For decades, U.S. officials have talked about democracy but have favored dictators, especially in strategic corners of the world like the Middle East. Under George W. Bush, the United States even relied on the region’s torture chambers to extract useful confessions from detainees.

But now those hypocritical trade-offs are coming back to haunt U.S. policymakers as the dictators teeter on the brink and angry citizens blame Washington for much of their suffering, as Michael Winship notes in this guest essay: