In this morning’s op-ed, Nicholas Kristoff stands with the protesters in Liberation Square and urges the Obama Administration to forgo its equivocation and join him in supporting the people in their efforts to overthrow Hosni Mubarak. However, Kristoff avoids discussing the impropriety of our government intervening in the political unrest of another sovereign state.
Moreover, in Kristoff's romanticized, over-simplified assessment of the situation in Egypt he does not mention the risks involved in overthrowing the government, including the possibility that a fundamentalist Islamic regime might replace Mubarak.
But even though I agree with the cautionary position taken so far by the Obama Administration, like Kristoff, I empathize with the Egyptian people and wish them well in removing their 30-year dictator and replacing him with a democratic form of government.
Where do Katalusis readers come down on what the US position should be as the crisis in Egypt continues to unfold?
Kristoff writes:
As I stand in Tahrir Square on Monday trying to interview protesters, dozens of people surging around me and pleading for the United States to back their call for democracy, the yearning and hopefulness of these Egyptians taking huge risks is intoxicating.
When I lived in Cairo many years ago studying Arabic, Tahrir Square, also called Liberation Square, always frankly carried a hint of menace. It was cacophonous and dirty, full of crazed motorists in dilapidated cars. That was way back at a time when the then-new Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak, talked a good game about introducing democracy.
When I lived in Cairo many years ago studying Arabic, Tahrir Square, also called Liberation Square, always frankly carried a hint of menace. It was cacophonous and dirty, full of crazed motorists in dilapidated cars. That was way back at a time when the then-new Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak, talked a good game about introducing democracy.
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