The Arab uprising has been an event of great inconsistency. Libya — a corrupt and repressive regime — has drawn all of the West’s attention, yet many other similar corrupt regimes receive tacit U.S. approval.

Muammar Gaddafi, Libya’s eccentric leader, is a delusional madman whose desperate attempts to hold onto power have led to the killings of an unknown number of protesters and rebels.

Merely saying Gaddafi is delusional might be an understatement — the man is insane. He frequently sleeps in tents on his visits to foreign nations.

When visiting New York City, he tried to set up an elaborate tent in Central Park but was told he didn’t have the proper permits.

His elite unit of bodyguards, nicknamed the “Amazonian Guard” by Western journalists, consists of beautiful, young women who must take vows of chastity and swear loyalty to Gaddafi.

The man obviously is not fit to govern anything. But the Middle East is full of megalomaniacal leaders who hardly are fit to lead. Egypt’s now-disposed president, Hosni Mubarak, allegedly bought suits that contained his name in each of the pinstripes.

The Saudi royal family, the ruling force in Saudi Arabia, bills the state for the lavish lives of its 7,000 members.

And although it is not in the Middle East, the son of the dictator of Equatorial Guinea recently ordered the construction of a $380 million superyacht. The cost of the yacht is nearly three times the amount the country spends on health care and education.

The world watches as crazy leaders starve their people, fail to provide adequate services and deny them basic civil rights. Why? Because it’s too inconvenient to do anything else.

I fully support the action in Libya. However, I also would like to see the world act consistently. If the precedent for foreign intervention in a nation is a corrupt government that uses violence on its people, then there’s a long list of countries that meet those requirements.

President Barack Obama has condemned the recent violent attacks on protesters in Yemen, yet the violence continues.

Do the people in Yemen deserve freedom less than the people in Libya? The fact of the matter is the U.S. can do little except admonish Yemen because the country has been a key U.S. ally in an increasingly hostile region.

The same is true for Bahrain, which is home to the U.S. 5th Fleet. The U.S. wants to support democracy but only when democracy isn’t endangering the order of things. People rose up in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and now Bahrain and Yemen because their leaders are incompetent and corrupt.

They fill their bank accounts before looking to the masses that they derive their power from. It’s surprising it took so long for the masses to become enraged.

The U.S. should not police the world but sincerely should begin encouraging the formation of democratic institutions abroad. People’s basic desire to be free caused the uprisings in the Middle East, and they won’t end until at least some of these needs are met.

The quickest, most effective way to stabilize the region would be to allow concession and stop denying people their inalienable rights.

The creation of jobs, curbing the rampant corruption and ensuring governments do not brutally crack down on their people will bring change — change that will help the entire world — to the region.

Forcibly asserting the will of few over the voices of the many will work in the short term but only will cause more instability and future conflict.

Moving toward democracy, no matter how painful it might be in the short term, is the best option for the long-term interests of not only the U.S. but also the world.

Madmen must stop ruling the world.

Matt Manning is a State News guest columnist and an international relations and Russian senior. Reach him at mannin84@msu.edu.