On the, "Yeah, He's an SOB but He's Our SOB", Concept of American Foreign Policy

I'm not a big fan of it, folks. a) It constantly puts us in the position of having to "take a shower" and b) it generally leads to nasty consequences; attempted genocide of the Mayan Indians in Guatemala, attempted genocide of the Kurds in Iraq, nuns being gunned down in El Salvador, the rise of Islamic extremism in East-Asia, the bulk of Eastern Europe ending up as 40 year slave-state of the Soviet Union, etc.. I mean, yeah, there may be a rare occasion or two when the "enemy of my enemy is my friend" approach is appropriate but we seem to use it WAY too much in my estimation.