Achievables

I play this computer game called Civilization. Specifically, Civilization IV. My wife might call it "Obsession IV" because of the hours I have devoted to it over the years. Over the course of my hours of gameplay, I have made myself familiar with a variety of cultures and people and destroyed them. This is how Civilization works. It is far easier to win the game by crushing your enemies than making attempts at diplomatic solutions. One of the indicators of success is when the cities of your empire begin to celebrate. I have learned that it's not necessarily a good thing when they are celebrating "Despot Day." I looked it up. Being a despot isn't a good thing. Think Idi Amin. Think Pol Pot. Think Adolph Hitler.
Last week, our "president" gave an interview in which he sounded like a despot: "We're keeping the oil, we have the oil, the oil is secure, we left troops behind only for the oil." This left Rear Adm. William Byrne to explain, "I'm not going to pick on your words, but I would only — I would be cautious with saying that 'the mission [is] to secure the oil fields. The mission is the defeat of ISIS. The securing of the oil fields is a subordinate task to that mission, and the purpose of that task is to deny ISIS the revenues from that oil infrastructure." Got that? It's not the oil. It's defeating ISIS. 
Which is why the "president" popped up again on Fox News, telling Laura Ingraham, "They said, 'He left troops in Syria.' You know what I did? I left troops to take the oil. I took the oil." 
Which turns out to be pretty prototypical for this despot. Using "I" instead of "we" and attempting to diminish all other conversation surrounding what is essentially a war crime is standard operating procedure for this guy. So is selling our troops. “We have a very good relationship with Saudi Arabia—I said, listen, you’re a very rich country. You want more troops? I’m going to send them to you, but you’ve got to pay us. They’re paying us. They’ve already deposited one billion dollars in the bank.” Spoken like a true Don.
Or maybe a despot?
Is this civilized?