My Enemys Enemy Is My Friend (and my enemy)

Sponge Bob

The New York times has a fascinating story on the USA ignoring the sanctions it itself pressed for against North Korea. This was so the North Koreans could fix some Ethiopian tanks in order that the Ethiopians could invade Somalia and take out the local Islamist government .. to whom the Americans obviously object to more vehemently .

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/08/world/africa/08ethiopia.html?hp

This will send a great message to all muslims everywhere . We fear you more than we fear a nuclear armed nutcase.

American officials said that they were still encouraging Ethiopia to wean itself from its longstanding reliance on North Korea for cheap Soviet-era military equipment to supply its armed forces and that Ethiopian officials appeared receptive. But the arms deal is an example of the compromises that result from the clash of two foreign policy absolutes: the Bush administration’s commitment to fighting Islamic radicalism and its effort to starve the North Korean government of money it could use to build up its nuclear weapons program.

....and the US may even have paid for it themselves

The United States gives Ethiopia millions of dollars of foreign aid and some nonlethal military equipment.

and finally

American officials insist that they are keeping up the pressure on Ethiopia. While Ethiopia has not provided an ironclad assurance that it will accept no more arms shipments from North Korea, it has told the United States that it will look for other weapons suppliers.
“There was a lot going on at that particular moment in time,” said the senior American official. “They seem to have the readiness to do the right thing.”

"The Right Thing" , quite so