usa - praise where it's due, page-80

Sounds fair to me. Only question is who is to decide which are the brutal dictators versus the non brutal dictators versus the merely authoritarian. Is Mugabe a brutal dictator? I think many would agree that he is but there doesn't seem to be much motivation to act against him.Saddam we are told was very naughty, but only when the west wanted to get rid of him. In the 80's he was presented as a good guy(because he was fighting Iran, the enemy of my enemy is my friend etc)
Then we are face with the problem of false flag incidents and provocation, every country wants to be seen as the victim, gives added moral superiority. The US pushed Japan into attacking it by way of embargoes, freezing of accounts etc to push them into attacking.The Japanese did the same in order to start the war in China. The Poles were persuaded by way of secret treaties with Britain to provoke the Germans into attacking first(breakdown of the Danzig corridor negotiations, massacres of ethnic Germans, Bromberg massacre for example).

Unfortunately it all comes down to propaganda and we are just as propagandised as anyone, it's just that we have better quality propaganda, therefore more effective. Thankfully we have the net to enable multiple points of view, and possibly counteract some of the rubbish we are fed, though for how much longer that will be allowed(net censoring in OZ, eg)is anyones guess.