COLUMN: 01-02-2008

It seems that British colonialism has taken hold once again, with American help. In Jordan, King Abdullah was spending most of his time in England (his mother's homeland) when he was called on to take the authoritarian reigns of his country as his father was nearing death and it became clear that his uncle, the former crown prince, would not be as subservient to the west as was his father. In Syria, President Bashar Assad was spending his life as an eye doctor in England when he was called back to Syria to learn to take over his father's dictatorial regime after his elder brother Basil was killed in a car accident. Most recently, Benazir Bhutto's son is being called "home" to Pakistan (where he's never really lived) from England to lead his mother's party after her assassination last week. However, he is currently planning to return to England to finish Bachelor's Degree before taking his role on formally and will lead only as a figurehead in the meantime. When will the American and British governments learn that supporting (with the exception of Syria) these western-educated despots will not increase the spread of our values and will instead lead to more anti-Americanism?