Eugene Robinson: The Devils We Know

[babylonsister]

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_devils_we_know_20110203/

The Devils We Know
Posted on Feb 4, 2011
By Eugene Robinson


Bargains with the devil never end well. For decades, successive U.S. administrations have embraced autocratic, repressive regimes in the Arab world—and now, as we see in the bloody streets of Cairo, it’s time to pay the price.

Officials in Washington could do little more than watch helplessly Wednesday as goon squads loyal to dictator Hosni Mubarak made a violent attempt to drive pro-democracy protesters out of Tahrir Square. Before learning of the deadly raid, White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley gave this honest assessment: “We don’t control this. And even though we like to think at times that we can control everything in the world ... it truly is not up to us.”

Not at this point, obviously. President Obama’s call for Mubarak to begin a transition “now” has drawn haughty defiance from the dictator and his courtiers. “Now” apparently means “in September, maybe”—Mubarak says that neither he nor his son Gamal will run for president this fall, although few believe a man so accustomed to ruling like a pharaoh could preside over a genuine democratic transformation.

snip//

If the Egyptian regime can be challenged by ordinary citizens demanding freedom and democracy, any regime in the Arab world can be so challenged. The United States will not be able to dictate events, but neither will it be able to stand idly by—not where our non-democratic allies are concerned.

When push comes to shove, American officials must uphold American values. We made a bargain whose term has lapsed. Settling final accounts will not be pleasant.

[chimpymustgo]

1. We've made deals with way to many devils. The day of reckoning is at hand.

[Leithan]

2. Nonsense! America is God's Country.

:sarcasm:

[chimpymustgo]

3. And the chickens are coming home to roost in God's country.

[Honeycombe8]

4. Politics makes strange bed fellows, they say. It's true. We needed Egypt,.

Egypt signed a deal with Israel, helped qualm unrest in the ME against Israel and the U.S., and helped in the Kuwait-Iraq Gulf War. They say no peace, and no war, happens in the ME without Egypt's blessing. Fact is, beggars can't be choosers. We needed Egypt. Furthermore, Mubarak was not a radical Islamist forcing women to wear Burqas and stoning men to death for misdemeanor crimes. He was a secularist who kept the radicals at bay.

America is a global leader, but is not the controller of the earth. Other countries are run by themselves. We may secretly try to arrange coups or whatever, but officially, we don't choose the leaders of other nations, just as they don't choose America's leaders.

Seems to me that America has stressed repeatedly throughout the decades its belief in human rights and free elections. I hear our leaders speaking about it at every turn. But we can't go around refusing to negotiate or be allied with countries that don't operate that way.

It's time to cut our country some slack. We don't control what goes on in Egypt. We can encourage, threaten to deny aid, and other things. But what advance in freedom would it be for Egypt if it let another country choose its leader? That's as bad as how Mubarak came to power (with an assassination...not by Murbarak, though; he had nothing to do with that). We can help Egypt find its way to free elections, though. I hope that's what happens.