Double standards of the US

‘The tombs of young Americans who defended freedom surround the globe,’ goes the saying. Dictators and autocrats are generally  not acceptable to the United States. Its CIA has destabilized many of them around the globe and their relentless efforts continue. Freedom and human rights record are the two basic standards to qualify for American aid. But the autocratic kings of the Gulf Region who head oppressive regimes are good and dear to the United States.  There is no political or religious freedom in any one of these kingdoms and the human rights record is in pretty bad shape. Further, women are oppressed and are not allowed to develop themselves nor to decide their own destiny. Such autocratic regimes are promoted by the same nation which flexes its muscles when a third world nation glides into dictatorship.  Double standards?

USA has militarily defeated Afghanistan for obvious reasons. A little later, under its leadership , a world army was formed to crush the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and the Libyan ruler Colonel Gaddafi . But the same USA had kept quite when the USSR conquered Afghanistan much earlier. It acquiesces China which  has an oppressive regime with the worst human rights record. Further, China  continues to occupy Tibet which it had conquered long back, and denies freedom to the peace-loving Tibetans.  For flimsy reasons the US had turned its full force to blast tiny nations like Granada and Panama and easily knocked them down. Many of these were handy targets for the US presidents to boost their sagging morale and restore the nations lost prestige.

Are the military escapades based on propinquity and certainty of success? Or, can it be understood that a drastic mistake is pardonable because of ‘strategic’ considerations or  the power of the perpetrator?

The West was quick to restore an autocracy in Kuwait disregarding its professed stand to promote freedom and democracy in the world. If America was moved by principles of equity and justice or by compassion, it should have had rushed to help the besieged Bosnian Muslims when they were punished in glaring daylight by the Serbian dictator. Half a million or more Rwandans were massacred in the not so distant past in the internecine strife of that nation. May be no vital US interest was at stake in Rwanda or Bosnia. Can self interest be behind every foreign intervention of America or any other nation for that matter?  Are the tombs of young Americans that surround the Arabian Deserts not to defend freedom but to keep the lines of oil open?