Living Down From Our Principles

Because we chose to play cynical and selfish games that made a mockery of our supposed support of the principles of freedom and democracy, it now blows back on us. And makes the appeal of radical Islam exponentially stronger. I once spent 2 days with an Egyptian professor. He related to me how infuriated and crushed the U.S. made him. Why? Because he said that the moderates like him were caught between a rock and hard place. On the one side were Mubarak’s corrupt and repressive forces, which they could tell were stuffed with American money and support. These forces repressed them anytime they moved for democratic things like real representation and real freedom of the press—the very things the U.S. trumpeted that it championed. On the other side were Muslim radicals who hated the moderates as much as they hated Mubarak, because the moderates envisioned a truly democratic future, a secular one, one infused with the protections and moderations that the best parts of Western culture embodied. Which left the moderates little to nothing in the way of support while they watched the angry and disaffected grow and become swayed by the radicals. If it weren't for the relatively even manner of much of Egyptian society, things would be worse, much worse.

Policies, both active and passive, have consequences. And what happens elsewhere does matter. Things for us to think about--what we say and don't say, do and don't do. What happens here matters out there. And increasingly, the reverse is true as well.