Saddam Hussein has always been a bad guy. But once upon a time, he was also our guy. Back when he was fighting a long, bloody war against Iran, we graciously supplied him with financial and military support despite the fact that we knew he was a ruthless dictator who tortured and killed his own people.

Iran was considered to be a much bigger threat to our interests at the time, and we wanted to check their military aspirations. So we looked the other way when Saddam misbehaved because it suited our purposes. Now that particular chicken has come home to roost, and we are spending billions of dollars that we don’t really have and sacrificing hundreds of American lives to straighten out the mess he left behind.

One would hope that the experience with Saddam would have taught us an important lesson about what happens when one dances with the devil. But it appears as if the folks running our government still have some learning to do. Even as our president waxes poetic about spreading the seeds of democracy to all corners of the globe, we continue to cozy up to some very bad governments when it seems to be politically expedient for us to do so.

Say hello to one of our most important allies in the war on terror, President Islam Karimov of Uzbekistan. Uzbekistan is one of those former Soviet republics that are now recognized as sovereign states, but it is one that hasn’t yet shaken off its communist heritage.

The communist political machine in Uzbekistan kept running after the Soviet Union went belly up, and Karimov is a remnant of those bad old days who has refused to open up the country’s political process to democratic reform. He simply stopped referring to himself as a communist and became an average everyday dictator.

But he also, wisely, declared himself to be a partner to the United States in the war on terror after 9/11. He has taken a hard rhetorical line against Muslim extremists and has openly pledged his country’s full support to the U.S. goal of snuffing out terrorists in the region.

The cagey Karimov has even justified his violent crackdown on political protesters by asserting that those clamoring for reform in his country are actually Islamic fundamentalists looking to start a civil war.

Let’s see – a brutal dictator in a primarily Muslim country who brings down an iron fist on any form of political dissent and then justifies it in the name of maintaining “stability.” And we’re backing him because, for now, it gives us a strategic military advantage to do so. Am I the only one who is getting a terrible feeling of deja vu here?

We’ve been down this road way too many times, and it doesn’t lead to a good place. The differences between men like Saddam Hussein and Islam Karimov involve only time and geography. Their philosophy and methods are remarkably similar.