What right does the U.S. have to squelch Egyptian democracy?
One of the uncomfortable questions being raised by the protests in Egypt is to what degree U.S. and Israeli interests justify consigning 80 million Egyptians to tyrannical rule. The basic "pro-Mubarak" argument articulated by Barry Rubin and Caroline Glick is that Israel's security (and America's interest in said security) are ample justification to get behind Mubarak or a fellow strongman. The writhing mass of "rioters" (in Glick's formulation) cannot be trusted to govern themselves because they endorse, or will fall prey to, totalitarian Islam.
And they might be right! After all, revolutions often lead to worse outcomes for both their population and the world at large.
America has every right (indeed, an obligation) to privilege her interests above the well-being of people in other states when common ground can't be reached, but to the extent that defending interests entails actively aiding the repression of an entire people, that should give us pause, particularly because we're simultaneously trying to squelch a global terrorist insurgency that feeds off of just such repression.
(AP Photo)
