I am willingly to bet that Ahmadinejad were to renounce Iran’s nuclear program and say a nice word about Israel, the entire U.S. Congress would line up to kiss his face and hug him.

U.S. politicians - like most of their counterparts - have no principle. They speaks only about the human rights abuses of nations that are not puppets of the West. That is why while pro-America Saudi Arabia is rarely criticized for its egregious human rights abuses, Syria is consistently singled out. And all with an air of righteousness that somehow the West is best equipped to lecture others, overthrow regimes and going around condemning this or that leader. This double-standard, empty rhetoric and hypocrisy is not lost on Arabs and Muslims.

The recent Western love affair with Egypt’s Col. Qadhafi is a prime example. For decades, the delusional and eccentric Qadhafi was a hated figure for the rest. And for good reason. Qadhafi was a state sponsor of terrorism and the Libyan government killed over 100 American students when it downed a civilian airliner.

But when Qadhafi suspended his weapons program, all was forgotten about Libyan human rights abuses that for decades were highlighted by Western foreign ministries. Qadhafi was showered with words of praise, a state visit in France, a meeting with Tony Blair and Condi Rice and several other Western dignitaries. Libyans continue to be tortured for the “crime” of speaking their mind, but the West no longer pays even token concern for Qadhafi is now in the club and there is billions of Libyan oil at stake.

Do not misunderstand. I do not believe that the West should isolate nations like Libyan. I believe in free trade with all nations that want to and cross-border travel. I do not believe that a nation should determine trade policy based on human rights concerns. I believe that we should not have delusions about dictators - they should not be invited for state dinners, say - but that we should trade with them and eventually prospering economies will produce at least a degree of liberalism. So am I not criticizing Western nations for dropping sanctions against Libyan, but for their hypocrisy in pretending they ever cared in the first place about human rights. There are people called realists who do not concern themselves with human rights and reward or punish nations in accordance with the degree they serve the respective country’s goals. They are honest and do not go around self-righteously claiming to care so much about human rights but them immediately change course when a dictator becomes a willingly client. But there are people who do - neo-conservatives (Washington Post editorial page is key) - and these people are still allowed to arrogantly pose as defenders of freedom and democracy and slander all opponents.

John McCain is an example of this in Congress claiming to be a democracy champion. Well, what did John think about Qadhafi after meeting him? He placed the following comment on his Twitter page:

Late evening with Col. Qadhafi at his “ranch” in Libya - interesting meeting with an interesting man.11:42 AM Aug 15th from web

Nothing like high principle.