Not too long ago, historically speaking, he was their bad man. He was kind of comparable to Ngo Dinh Diem or Manuel Noriega or Fulgencio Batista or a host of others in that way. Use him while it's convenient for the USA, dump him when it's not. Bin Laden was also their bad man not very long ago, when he was killing Russians for them. He was a "freedom fighter" then.

I wonder who the next ugly "face" will be? They've got to have a really unamerican and evil-looking "bad guy" in order to market a war successfully to Joe Sixpack (to use your term, Bobert). The most convenient thing of all is to have a bad guy whom no one can find (like Bin Laden). Then you can launch wars and interventions pretty well anywhere you like, supposedly to go after him.

- LH