With US or Against US?

Reversing a 15-year-old ban on the sale of such weaponry to Pakistan, Bush yesterday announced that he had decided to allow his "War on Ahem!" ally to buy American-made F-16 fighter planes, even if he is a military dictator. Today the Los Angeles Times reports on a global arms trafficking ring whereby the government of Pakistan has illegally purchased nuclear weapons components from American companies.

Elsewhere, Juan Cole reports on massive (illegal) pro-democracy marches in Bahrain, another strong US ally in the Middle East:

The US has a naval base in Bahrain and its king has been a helpful ally. Will George W. Bush support Shaikh Salman or King Hamad? Bush spoke out forcefully against the Syrian presence in Lebanon and in favor of Lebanese democracy. Will he speak out in favor of majority rule and popular sovereignty in Bahrain?

And if he doesn't, won't the rest of the Middle East assume he is just hypocritically hiding behind catch phrases like "democracy" to make trouble for the countries in the region like Syria and Iran, which Bush does not like, and which are seen as threats by his expansionist friends in Israel's Likud party?

Cole also has this precious observation:

Gee, I wonder who is funding those illegal colonies in Palestinian territory? Alas, it is I. The Israeli government funds them, while orally distancing itself from them, and the Israeli government gets $10 a year from each American, including me. A family of five in America since 1980 has conservatively been made to donate $1250 to the Israeli government, so that it can thumb its nose at our peace plans. Nor has it bought us security; the Israeli security agencies didn't do squat to prevent 9/11 (they're supposed to be protecting our flank in the Middle East for all that money), and Israeli intelligence told us Saddam had weapons of mass destruction