And that is what this cylinder is, the declaration made by the ruler guided by God who had toppled the Iraqi despot and was going to bring freedom to the people.

Belarus provides a glaring example. The European Parliament has consistently denounced Belarus as Europe s last dictatorship, yet EU member governments continue business as usual with Aleksander Lukashenka, the country s wayward and near lunatic despot.

But none believed in Moses except some youths from among his people, for the fear of Pharaoh and his elite that he would persecute them. For Pharaoh was indeed a tyrant in the land, and indeed he was an unrestrained despot .

But none believed in Moses except some youths from among his people, for the fear of Pharaoh and his elite that he would persecute them. For Pharaoh was indeed a tyrant in the land, and indeed he was an unrestrained despot .

Then there is the long tradition of the court jester with license to criticize the despot by sweetening his barbs with jokes. The annual Gridiron Club Dinner in Washington, where the president is lampooned by the press, is a relic of this custom.

The top source of refugees is Syria, where the international community has refused to conduct the kinds of military operations required by the responsibility to protect even though international law demands intervention when a mad despot, having killed 240,000 of his people, undertakes to empty his country. The West also is not bombing Eritrea, another major source of refugees.

MADRID US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, when asked about American support for the notorious Nicaraguan despot Anastasio Somoza, purportedly replied, He may be a son of a bitch, but he s our son of a bitch. Whether or not the quip is apocryphal, it sums up a longstanding Western approach to much of the world and one that underpinned US foreign policy throughout the Cold War.

Unfortunately, Western leaders have repeatedly shown that they lack the patience and dedication needed to engage consistently and humbly with communities in crisis stricken countries or to provide the reliable, incremental, and prolonged governance assistance needed to prevent state collapse. With their short attention spans and heightened sense of their own importance, they prefer the option of simply installing a despot to deal with it.

A dictator s death throes are always a form of theater, featuring ecstatic masses, would be successors fighting for political survival, and, behind the scenes, the dictator s coterie locked in efforts to extend the life of their patriarch until they can secure their privileges. Franco s son in law, who was also the family doctor, kept the dying despot on life support machines for more than a month.