There is another, allied source of legitimate power. It is called historical and political awareness. Let's apply it:
NATO commander in charge of bombing Libya
Suharto was overthrown by popular pressure -- but just as much, because the cold war was over and, having done his job as a mega killer and ally for decades, the US could let him go. And Washington could look on without angst that the once-great non-aligned power under Sukarno up to the early 1960s, might start rebuilding itself as a nation, because whoops, there goes plucky little East Timor, finally getting independence, Aceh ready to split away too, and all kinds of religious fundamanics ready to keep Indonesia from even thinking about a progressive agenda.
Many many Serbs wanted to be rid of Milosevic, but he was certainly not overthrown by moral authority. It was NATO bombing that did it, because he represented, in however withered and warped a way, the last traces of that anti-imperialist, non-Soviet independent socialist country called Yugoslavia, and he wouldn't give in. So the West moved in, and then handed Kosovo to the KLA, the Kleptomanic Liberation Army, the final act in the long breakup which began with the breakaway of Slovenia as soon as the Berlin Wall dust had settled, and then the Western recognition of a separate Croatia, many of whose leaders had collaborated with the fascist German occupiers.
Shevardnadze, alongside Gorbachev, had once represented the hope for peaceful, balanced reform of the Soviet Union. There is no way that the poodle who ousted him from leadership of Georgia, with US help, was empowered by moral authority -- however many glowing torches waved romantically in the city square, with CNN cameras playing fondly over them. Watch this space and take a check on the progress of western capital in Georgia under the new man, and the deals being struck with American oil companies.
Marcos was ousted by popular pressure, and the moral authority of a brave martyr. Chowchesskoo, yes, a top bastard. And the one Soviet bloc leader who was somewhat pro-Zionist by the way.
So, good, good people, when you further widen and strengthen your global coalitions (which I would be honoured to support), do empower your growing forces with awareness of the forces they face, the strategies those enemies resort to. And please don't be tempted to try and "balance" your list of villains, as a sop to your enemies.
By Tony Hall (2004)
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