Nigeria, May 29 -- The world has never been short of demagogues and fools, but the remedies have often matched the supply. In 1990, during President Nelson Mandela's thank-you tour of the world, he was asked at the City College of New York, Harlem, NY., why he remained friends with Muammar Gaddafi, Yasser Arafat, and Fidel Castro.

He replied that he didn't think it was the business of any country to choose South Africa's friends. These people stood by South Africa in its hour of need; why should he betray them now? His interlocutor turned tail, and Mandela received a standing ovation.

British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher preached "constructive engagement" to dismantle apartheid. In response to her duplicity in 2004, the President of...