Hypocrisy Overdose

The week started with the dictator of Saudi Arabia paying a state visit to Britain.

Here was a man who runs one of the most authoritarian, oppressive countries in the world. A country where there isn't an ounce of democracy - all power is held by the Al Sauds. A country where public executions, amputations, flogging and torture are routine. A country where women are treated worse than animals. A country where there is no free media. A country that gave the world Al Qaeda - fifteen of the nineteen 9/11 hijackers were Saudi, Bin Laden is Saudi, most of the foreign Al Qaeda operatives in Iraq are Saudi.

Yet despite all this, the red carpet was rolled out and Prince Philip von Oldenburg wheeled out to greet dictator Abdullah Al Saud. All Britain's principles and beliefs were brushed under that carpet just because they buy arms from us and supply us with oil.

The week ended with the dictator of Pakistan staging yet another coup to hold onto power. The "international community's" reaction has been as ambivalent as it was when he staged his first coup all the way back in September 1999.

Condoleeza Rice has stated that "the US has made clear that it does not support extra-constitutional measures because those measures would take Pakistan away from the path of democracy and civilian rule". This hasn't stopped the US from propping up dictator Musharraf for the past eight years.

This week has indeed seen an overdose of hypocrisy by the "international community". They are quick to condemn dictatorships in Burma, Zimbabwe, Iran, Syria and pre-invasion Iraq but at they same time they either prop up or turn a blind eye to dictatorships in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, China, Egypt, Algeria, Libya and numerous others.