Worst dictators

Parade Magazine, which comes in the Sunday paper, has published its annual list of The World's 10 Worst Dictators.

1) Omar al-Bashir, Sudan
2) Kim Jong-il, North Korea
3) Than Shwe, Burma (Myanmar)
4) Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe
5) Islam Karimov, Uzbekistan
6) Hu Jintao, China
7) King Abdullah, Saudi Arabia
8) Saparmurat Niyazov, Turkmenistan
9) Seyed Ali Khamane’i, Iran
10) Teodoro Obiang Nguema, Equatorial Guinea

I always find it interesting because it helps put into perspective how out of synch our foreign policy efforts are with our stated goals of spreading democracy around the globe. You have to go all the way down to No. 9 to find a country that this administration has bothered to rattle a saber at. Many of the leaders on this list and the runners-up who take up the 11-20 slots are considered our allies. That or we are indifferent to them.