Word: strongman
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Despite his return to the international fold following his 2003 repudiation of state terrorism and of efforts to develop weapons of mass destruction, Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi hasn't been the kind of statesman Western leaders have wanted to honor in their capitals - until now. Despite his continued disdain for democracy and notoriously poor record on human rights, Gaddafi is being hosted by French President Nicolas Sarkozy for a lavish five-day stay featuring not one but two meetings with Sarkozy. Supporters of the trip argue it offers Gaddafi evidence of the diplomatic respect awaiting him should he match...
Russia, for its part, continues to insist that by allowing Kosovo to break away without the U.N.'s approval, the West is violating international law. Western officials counter that after experiencing the horrors of former Serb strongman Slobodan Milosevic in the 1990s, it is pointless to expect that Albanians would ever again agree to live under Belgrade...
...whether or not this cop [Drew Peterson] killed his...wife. And meanwhile, you've got Pakistan in the midst of a real crisis, where these people have nuclear weapons that we helped them develop. You've got a guy in charge, who's basically declared himself the military strongman and is being supported by the Bush administration, whose raison d'etre for going into Iraq was to spread democracy in the world...
Munk's taste for authority figures has drawn some criticism. When he praised Augusto Pinochet Ugarte recently for the former Chilean strongman's contribution to economic reform, some Canadian commentators took him to task for ignoring the dictator's human-rights abuses. Munk still bridles at the charges but notes, "Maybe I'm less sensitive to these issues because I see that what people need first is economic security, and only when they have that can they afford to focus on human rights." The alternative to liberalized economies, he argues, "is the true enslavement of the people...
...have seized power in a coup, say his defenders in Washington, but he's our sort of guy, the kind of man we need in the fight against terrorism--and, by the way, he has always said he will return his country to democracy. In other words, the Pakistani strongman is crucial to both of the U.S.'s key goals in the Muslim world: fighting terrorism and spreading freedom...