February 18, 2011

Falling Governments

There may be explanations and perhaps valid reasons for our national leaders wanting to be cautious in their statements about the recent events in Egypt, but I don't understand the reluctance to speak more openly about events in Iran. The people of Iran have been agitating for years, hoping for change, and generally we appear to have let them down by being unwilling to say much against the Iranian government, which regularly uses grand and aggressive rhetoric against the United States and its allies.

Now that Egypt's future is at once both more certain and less certain, we should issue clearer statements in regard to them as well. The short term of a hopefully provisional military rule is the situation now, and we can all hope that free and democratic elections will occur on schedule in about six months. I must admit to be relatively unversed in all the intricacies of foreign policy, but I think that we could at least make clear our position that we are prepared to be friends of freedom and enemies of terror. The Egyptians must make their own choices and do their own work to make their own form of government, and we must be prepared to match our actions to our words, both in the case of Egypt and of Iran.

Still, even in times of uncertainty, it seems that we could at least state what we are certain of - that we hope for more freedom in both nations, and will stand against terrorism in any nation.