A friend has posted a comment on the plight of Egypt and the Egyptians. It's worth reading:
Momentum. That's what the people of Egypt have now, and that's what is going to guarantee that real change is accomplished.
I look back at the revolution in Romania, and the effect of timid steps after such monumental change. It took nearly a decade to bleed out the communists that slithered back into the new government.
The point is that the momentum and the appetite for change that are being felt in Egypt right now are going to help steel the people against the creeping feeling of insecurity that comes from not having someone in charge.
It's far worse to draw things out, to allow astute political players that made up the Mubarak regime to re-institute themselves in positions of power, or to allow any number of organized groups take hold of the government.
Anything that happens now must have the blessing of the Egyptian crowds; anything that comes later will be greased by the rising fear of uncertainty.
And if the outcome is not what we would hope, so be it. It'd time the word "we" disappeared from the Egypt debate. It's their fight, and it's their freedom. Let them decide.
1 comment:
Easy to say now. But if Egypt's "freedom" leads it to becoming another Iran that is hostile to U.S. interests, you better believe that the right is going to howl that Obama should have backed Mubarak unconditionally. If Egypt becomes another Iran, it will damage Obama's Presidency the same way that the fall of the Shah's undemocratic dictatorship in Iran damaged Carter's Presidency.
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