Question: If Secretary of State Clinton pulled the rug out of the human rights issue in China, and if the Obama administration appoints Chas Freeman, a man who became a cheerleader for the massacre of civilians during China’s Tiananmen Square crackdown, why should other governments — say Iraqi Kurdistan — even pretend anymore to care about democracy?

Answer: They don’t. Iraqi Kurdistan President Masud Barzani just announced that he would not allow the Independent Election Commission of Iraq to monitor the forthcoming elections, where, in the prepatory stage, there has already been a great deal of interference. Instead, Barzani is saying that his own monitoring organization — staffed largely with officials loyal to Barzani — will monitor.