The thing really on my mind right now is the US treatment of Hosni Mubarak. At first, I was pleased about the affair; by all accounts he wasn't much of one for personal liberties. That opinion started to flag when I considered the fact that we have been allied closely with Mubarak for the last 25 years. Whether or not we should have been is neither here nor there. As is, once again we have our sitting president failing to uphold our alliance with one of the very few friendly Middle Eastern powers. Mubarak may not be the nicest guy on the block, but those poised to take power in the Muslim world are distinctly Not Our Friends. As such, it is probably in the best interest of US foreign policy to NOT hang this guy out to dry. Whether or not you approve of Mubarak is not the question. The same thing happened before with the Shah in Iran. Look where that's left us.
Honestly, I don't like Mubarak. He's doing some decidedly creepy things in the interest of preserving order, and generally is somewhat objectionable. This to me though is more incentive for the US to uphold it's agreements, as we can restore order in manners not requiring his unpleasant methods. For more on the subject, http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/the-arab-revolution-and-western-decline-1.340967 is of interest.
Yay, I managed to keep up thing a day for the first day!
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