Some thoughts on Egypt, Tunesia, et. al.

[howard112211]

First of all I must say that I am impressed about what is going on, and find that people are in the right to overthrow an oppressive government.

Second: I recognize the importance of the US staying out of it. However, I do wish that the US would, considering the fact that backing the legitimate uprising is not an option, truly stay out of it. I find it very sad that our politicians would go on record backing the oppressors. Moreover, once this is all over, and Egypt has its democracy, the politicians who voiced support for the authoritarian governments will look like total fools.

Third, I find it sort of ironic, that after all those fake efforts to "promote democracy in the middle east", undergone by Republicans and Democrats alike, when a true populist democratic uprising happens it doesn't get recognized as such. Here we are still finding it necessary to "bring democracy to Iraq and Afghanistan" by bombing the enemies of illegitimate govnernments, but when the people overthrow a dictator themselves he is suddenly "not a dictator".

It is really a shame.

[Recursion]

1. We have weird ideas of what "democracy" means

That's sort of the intellectual hurdle the neoconservative movement never got over (well, Fukuyama eventually did, but he was always "the smart one" among them): "democracy" meaning the people participating in the decisionmaking process will not always manifest itself as what we would call "liberal democracy".

But, few people really think about these things, so you get people who sincerely believe the notion that "democracies don't start wars" (this basically applies to northern Europe only) and then -- in what can only be called a nauseating irony -- use that as a reason to start a war to bring democracy to a country.

[eridani]

2. For other countries, "democracy" is like working on a student newspaper

Say anything you want as long as the principal doesn't object.