Actually, the US props up dictators using a well-documented imperial playbook, refined over decades and repeatedly deployed against nations that dare to assert sovereignty over their resources, political systems, and development paths.
The US imperial playbook, "creates, captures, controls". The pattern is painfully familiar.
US creates or exploits a crisis through sanctions, covert operations, propaganda, economic strangulation, or support for internal destabilisation. Thereafter, they declare humanitarian concern and frame the crisis as a moral emergency caused by a “dictator,” “strongman,” or “regime.”
The Us then intervene as saviours militarily, economically, or politically, under the banner of democracy, human rights, or security. Sadly, the world never learns. Engineering of elections or regime change then installs compliant leaders or systems that prioritise Western interests. Finally, they extract resources, abandon the people leaving behind chaos, weakened institutions, and leaders far worse than those removed. (Refer to the fall of Gadaffi and current state of Libya)
This is not accidental at all, it's structural imperialism. Gaddafi's ultimate crime Wlwas independence. Muammar Gaddafi’s real crime was not authoritarianism considering that many US allies are authoritarian. His crime was economic and political independence. He nationalised Libya’s oil.
He used oil wealth for free education, healthcare, housing, and infrastructure. Gadaffi pushed for a gold-backed African currency, threatening the dollar and euro.
He championed African unity without Western mediation and Libya had the highest Human Development Index in Africa before NATO intervention.
After his removal, there is militia rule, open-air slave markets, a collapsed state, and western oil companies are quietly returning. Gaddafi’s fall was not liberation. It was punishment for sovereignty.
Other leaders who put their nations first paid the price.
▪︎ Patrice Lumumba (DRC) was assassinated for insisting Congolese control their minerals.
▪︎Thomas Sankara (Burkina Faso) was killed for rejecting IMF debt traps and Western dependency.
▪︎Hugo Chávez (Venezuela) was relentlessly demonised for nationalising oil and prioritising the poor.
▪︎Salvador Allende (Chile) was overthrown for challenging U.S. corporate interests.
▪︎Saddam Hussein (Iraq) was invaded after moving away from dollar-denominated oil.
▪︎Iran’s Mossadegh was ousted for nationalising oil in 1953.
In every case, resource control and geopolitical dominance, not democracy, were the real motives. Why is nationalism a crime except when America practices it?
America openly declares:
▪︎ “America First”
▪︎Protection of U.S. strategic interests
▪︎Military intervention to secure resources
▪︎Sanctions to force compliance
Yet when African, Latin American, Middle Eastern, or Asian leaders say:
“Our resources belong to our people”
They are branded dictators,
threats to global security, human rights violators and
enemies of democracy
Why is American nationalism patriotism, but African or Global South nationalism tyranny?
The answer is simple, the
Empire can't tolerate equals.
Elections are tools, not principles. Elections are not sacred to empire, they are instrumental. If elections produce leaders aligned with U.S. interests, they are “free and fair.” If they don’t, they are “rigged,” “illegitimate,” or grounds for sanctions and intervention.
U.S.-backed leaders often privatise national assets, suppress workers, serve foreign corporations and
enrich elites while deepening poverty. They are frequently worse than the so-called dictators they replaced, but they are obedient.