There is always a balance between your national self-interest and maintaining baseline principles in the international realm.
We've never had a problem throwing baseline support for democracies out the window when conducting "regime changes." The former prime minister of Iran would like a word with you if he were still alive, as would several South American heads of state.
Foreign policy is about nothing more than self-interest. We'll support a dictator who rapes babies and eats political dissidents alive if it facilitates our strategic goals. And that is as it should be.
