The U.S. has an unfortunate history of funding dictators with whom it later violently disagrees.
An obvious case in point is Manuel Noriega, graduate of the SOA and subsequently bankrolled by the CIA for a good twenty years to 'fight the spread of communism,' despite his penchant for human rights violations and drug trafficking.
When the U.S. finally turned on him it was primarily because cold war fears had subsided and Bush I had in mind a more 'business-minded' alternative in Guillermo Endara whom they installed as president after invading Panama in 1989.
Here's a potted history.
Leftist/liberal thinktank, Interhemispherical Resource Centre observed in a 1995 report that the timing of the invasion" provided a spectacular show of U.S. military might in the final months before the Nicaraguan elections, hinting to Nicaraguans that they might want to vote for the "right" candidate."
I'd guess that most people on this forum know about the long-standing 'special relationship' between Hussein and Republican U.S. governments from the 1980's until 1991. So I'll leave that one alone.
But apparently the U.S. government hopes it will be a case of '3rd time lucky' (or more accurately, 4th, or 5th or 6th . . . ) as it enthusiastically props up President General Pervez Musharraf who just last month refused to step down as army chief in Pakistan at the end of the year in accordance with his promises.
Because they've just given Musharraf £300 million in military aid in the just-passed budget (read more here. But as Bush said so eloquently, "General Musharraf of Pakistan is a Democrat." (Time to check those party membership lists, folks! Musharraf for DLC! </sarcasm>)
Since taking power in a military coup in 1999, Musharraf has presided over a richly varied assortment of human rights abuses which have escalated since 2001. His mandate is based on 'referendums' in which he was the only candidate. (Can't you just see Bush saying 'Wow! That's the way to run a free election. If only I'd thought of that! I'd have even more political capital. There wouldn't have been any of that electoral fraud nonsense! Never mind -- when are we having those elections in Iran, Condi? "Iraq, Mr. President, it's Iraq. January elections in Iraq, Februrary invasions in Iran -- haven't you got it straight yet? " "Sorry Condi.")
So what's the odds that a few years from now, we'll all be being told about Musharraf's dangerous weapons of mass destruction (related programs), the suppression of women's rights in Pakistan and the terrible human rights abuses happening there? Clearly Pakistan will require liberating from that evil Democrat dictator.