US puppets

I don't know what you think, but don't you agree that British and US puppets in the Middle East were of higher quality (in terms of their personalities and effectiveness) back in the 1950s and 1960s? I mean, Nuri As-Sa`id and Wasfi At-Tall and Kamil Sham`un were more colorful and intelligent--as contemptible as they were--than, say, Abu Mazen and Fu'ad Sanyurah and Hamid Karzai.