mahnmut

Here's a quiz.

Two countries.

Country A has a dictatorship. The people rebel and take down the dictator.
Country B has a dictatorship. The people rebel to take down the dictator.

The US response?

The US president mentions country A in his State of the Union speech (wow!): "The USA stands with the people of Country A and supports the democratic aspirations of ALL people".

Meanwhile, the US Secretary of State comments on country B, "We're monitoring the situation closely and we call on all parties to show restraint and refrain from violence".

Additionally, a prominent opposition figure said, "We're watching these developments very carefully, and beyond that I will not comment". Well, at least he also openly admitted, "This is a very important ally of ours".

That's the rub, isn't it? One is "an important ally". The other? Who cares. Let'em have their democracy, it doesn't matter.
There's also that: who's the rebelling opposition in country B (the "friendly" country)? Islamist fundamentalists (so, not-good-people, they hate Freedom™).

Did you guess already which country A and country B are? ;-)