What if "pre-emptive strike" was followed by every country in the world that had the means? War would break out everywhere simultaneously. Every country would attack its neighbor on the basis of fear, or because something they have witnessed there offends them. Suddenly the whole world would be at war !!!

There are dozens of dictatorships in the world. There are also communist countries, monarchies, and tribal aboriginal governments. We cannot be responsible for the constraints within which other peoples must live. In all likelihood, those constraints are ancient, nothing new to them. If they live within their society's constraints, no harm will come to them. If we find a gov't that is hurting people even if they obey their rules, then we still must follow due process in correcting the situation, otherwise we will legitimize the breaking of the rules, and the enemy could appeal their punishment on the grounds that due process was not strictly adhered to. We MUST follow due process, we MUST make every move official.

THE WORLD’S REMAINING POLITICAL DICTATORSHIPS

The following lists includes all countries and related territories which have been rated Not Free by the democracy watchdog, Freedom House. This organization uses wide ranging criteria to evaluate (1) political rights and (2) civil liberties. The scale for both is 1 to 7 with the latter being the worst. The first list is of the most repressive nations on earth, those rated 7,7 Not Free, for 2000-2001. The second list is of all other nations and territories rated not free. Regarding these designations, a qualification is in order. Freedom House’s other overall ratings are Partly Free and Free. Some nations which are rated partly free can also be regarded as functioning dictatorships, such as Malaysia.

List One: the most repressive nations and territories
- Afghanistan
- Burma
- Chechnya, a disputed territory controlled by Russia
- Cuba
- Iraq
- North Korea
- Libya
- Saudi Arabia
- Sudan
- Syria
- Tibet, a disputed territory controlled by China
- Turkmenistan

List Two: all other nations and territories judged not free
- Abkhazia, a disputed territory controlled by Georgia
- Algeria
- Angola
- Bahrain
- Belarus
- Bhutan
- Brunei
- Burundi
- Cambodia
- Cameroon
- Chad
- China
- Congo (Kinshasa)
- Egypt
- Equatorial Guinea
- Eritrea
- Gambia
- Guinea
- Iran
- Israeli-administered disputed territories
- Kashmir, a disputed territory controlled by India
- Kazakhstan
- Kenya
- Kosovo, a disputed territory controlled by Yugoslavia
- Kurdistan, a territory of Iraq
- Kyrgyz Republic
- Laos
- Lebanon
- Liberia
- Maldives
- Nagorno-Karabakh, a territory disputed between Armenia and Azerbaijan
- Oman
- Pakistan
- Palestinian Authority-administered disputed territories
- Qatar
- Rwanda
- Somalia
- Swaziland
- Tajikistan
- Transdneister, a disputed territory controlled by Moldova
- Tunisia
- United Arab Emirates
- Uzbekistan
- Vietnam
- Western Sahara, a disputed territory controlled by Morocco
- Yemen
- Zimbabwe

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We can't fix all of them. In these countries live billions of people who are capable of turning things around all by themselves. In time the dictators will be overthrown by their own people, or they will grow old and die, to be replace by perhaps a more lenient dictator. Or the dictator will implement systems and legal processes which will eventually be used by other people to water-down his oppressive rule. It will happen. But if you disrupt the process you risk re-setting the clock.