Wednesday, February 9, 2011

A Nation Betrays

When the lone remaining but rapidly fading superpower makes assurances to a leader taking great risk at our behest, the United States should have some sense of obligation to stand with that ally. The regime may be far from perfect, but it is likely better than that which replaces it as we saw in our hard learned object lesson when we withdrew support for the Shah of Iran. What message does the current administration and the State Department send by bailing out on, denouncing, and even renouncing our relationship of long standing with Hosni Mubarak? First- to our friends- that we are not steadfast and will fail them in the clutch, and second- to our enemies- that we are now easy pickings, that we and those who stand with us can be rolled. Projecting an image of weakness is dire in and of itself but selling out those who staked their political careers and even lives on us in the end will be catastrophic. Who will stand with us when we so readily cut and run?

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