After propping up a dictator against the will of the people in Egypt, I’d say we’re already reaping what we’ve sown.
Whether we prop them up or not, they always seem to end up with one anyhow.
Various Administrations supported Mubarak fully since 1981. Then, two weeks ago, we suddenly discover he’s a dictator? We had information that an upheaval was coming last year.
I hardly think we propped him up...
I fear Mubarak is right, at least in terms of Egypt going the way of Islamic extremism.
“Among the classical authors, the common opinion was that a democracy would eventually choose as a ruler a tyrant who promised them what they wanted. Then he would subject them to what he wanted. The American founders understood this problem, which is why they founded a republic, not a democracy.”
Rev. James V. Schall, S. J., teaches political science at Georgetown University.
This is the same argument people like you said in the late 70’s when we had to get rid of the Shah of Iran. What replaced him were fun-loving muslim clerics who have done all they can to make friendly w/the U.S.
Arabs always have dictators; it is the nature of muslim religion.
The best solution is to prop up a psuedo-friendly dictator that moves them to islam-lite.
You have got to be kidding? This is exactly what is going to happen.
You don’t understand. The people of the ME need a dictator, without one the islamist will rule. The non islamist will suffer greatly. A heavy hand is needed to control these people. Look around the world and get a clue.
Are you one of those "will of the people" social justice relativists? You KNOW the will of many of the people in the Mideast is to destroy Israel and the US.
Is the "will of the people" a good compass for foreign policy and national security?
Justice is a matter of perspective UNLESS premised upon the Creator.
Waving the "will of the people" banner all by itself is nothing but more of the same hope and change BS that got us marxist in 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
I don't know what the truth is here, and I clearly can't trust the media to tell me the truth, so this is very difficult to analyze. What is the ‘will of the people’ in Egypt? Do the people on the street represent the will of most, or even the majority of Egyptians? The only way to accurately ascertain that would be with extremely tightly monitored elections, and we clearly are not going to have those.
Historically, there are many examples in history where a group of very motivated and politically organized people have forced change, even when they were the minority. The Bolsheviks were by no means representative of the majority in Russia, but they helped usher in a regime that led to a realignment of the world, and the deaths of 100s of millions.
During Kristalnacht ‘the people’ took to the streets and destroyed the businesses of law abiding and productive members of society who happened to be Jewish. During the Roman empire crowds of ‘the people’ would decide who was put to death just by giving the ‘thumbs down’ sign. In the fundamental Islamist Middle East 'the people' gather in groups and stone people to death. In our modern US society ‘the people’ have often taken to the streets to overturn cars, loot, and destroy property just to exercise their ‘free will’ of celebrating the victory of their local sports team.
The bottom line, as I see it, is that life is a lot more complicated than we sometimes recognize. The only way to ensure that the ‘will of the people’ is given truthful stature is to have frequent elections that are monitored closely by all, and to have an intensely strict policy of term limits that makes it illegal for anyone to make a career out of politics. The only way to ensure that political candidates are motivated by the right things is to make it unprofitable to be elected, and to emphasize in the strongest terms that politicians are not celebrities, but are there to serve.
Well, I think it is only the beginning of reaping....and weeping. I predict that in less than 5 years the Egyptian people will be under sharia law, women will be in burqas and war will be looming with Israel. We will wish we had continued to prop up that ally of the US and the Egyptian people will wish that as well. The media really played a huge part in the revolt—CNN was literally thanked for their help..I question the coverage of this “democracy” movement. Mubarak is no saint for sure, but I suspect like the Shah of Iran, history will judge this as a huge loss for Egyptian freedom, and US and Israel interests. and
To evaluate Mubarek and the US’s stance toward him for 30 years, one has to consider Jean Kirkpatrick’s differentiation between authoritarian governments and totalitarian government.
Those are the real choices for a great part of the world.
It is the authoritarian dictator, where one has a range of choices versus totalitarain governments like Islamic regimes, where choices are far more restricted.
Limited government, with constitutional guarantees for freedom and libery, are the rare exception in world history, and are the result of unique cultures.
We shall see what the Egyptian people are capable of.
Will they end up like Gaza or Iran, or Afghanistan under the Taliban ?