Que ditaduras devem os americanos gostar?

Which Dictatorships Are We Supposed to Like?, por Jacob Hornberg, da Future of Freedom Foundation:

Don’t you sometimes wish that someone in authority in the U.S. government would explain how they determine which dictators we’re supposed to like and which ones we’re supposed to dislike?

Consider, for example, Syria. Right now, Syria is our enemy because it’s a brutal dictatorship, one that is oppressing its own people. President Obama is demanding that Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad leave office. Obama has also imposed sanctions on the Syrian regime.

But wait a minute! I thought Assad was our friend. Isn’t he the dictator whose brutal henchmen tortured Canadian citizen Maher Arar at the specific request of the CIA? Isn’t the CIA an agency of the U.S. government?

I don’t get it. How did Assad go from being our friend who tortures people on our request to our enemy who needs to be sanctioned until he relinquishes power?