As long as a majority of his own people vote for Chavez, then he IS the legitimate ruler of Venezuela. That's a simple fact, but it's one that the Bush administration would prefer people not to think of or remember. It's downright embarrassing when one's choice of "evil bad guy" gets democratically elected. ;-) It's been embarrassing for the USA every time Ortega did too in Nicaragua. Tough beans. Maybe the people there in those countries who have voted for Chavez and for Ortega know something that Mr Bush does not.

What would have happened to the nation of Iran if Mossadegh's elected government had continued to serve peacefully...no CIA coup in the 50's...no overthrow of the elected government...no tyrannical rule by the Shah...no subsequent backlash against the Shah...no Islamic fundamentalist revolution to overthrow the Shah...no subsequent war with Iraq (the West's proxy) in the 80s.

Now all that would have been extremely good for Iran and good for everyone else around there...except for maybe the British and American oil companies, who would have lost their direct control of Iranian oil...and lost some of their profits.

And that's the sad story right there. British and American oil policies have destabilized Iran, then put the Shah in, then isolated Iran after its Islamic revolution, then encouraged Iraq to attack Iran, and again persecuted Iran afterward right to the present day...and repeatedly threatened Iran with possible attack, including the implied threat to use tactical nuclear weapons on Iranian installations...thus driving Iran into a more and more extreme paranoia...and in this case the "paranoid" really DOES have enemies.

The USA and Great Britain are themselves responsible for whatever problems they presently have with Iran. The USA started the whole ugly mess when the CIA overthrew Mossadegh.

The USA and Britain have NO objection to supporting Islamist governments of the most extreme sort (Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates) as long as they cooperate fully with the western oil companies and the western military policies in the Middle East and the Caspian regions.

This war on Terror ultimately has almost nothing really to do with fighting militant Islam...it has everything to do with controlling oil and controlling regional areas that produce oil. The oil is the prize that America, Britain, Russia, and China have their minds upon. Militant Islam is simply a handy way of getting various of the common people on both sides all riled up and making them fight each other instead of think.