U.S. Should Stay Out Of Arab Problems

The Arab world is currently in a state of turmoil. A few days ago, the people of Tunisia tossed out their tyrant -- and his cronies who stepped in to take over for him. It's still unknown how that situation will finally shake out. Now the unrest has spread to Egypt, where demonstrators are demanding President Mubarak's removal from power.

Egypt's unrest has been going for nearly a week now and there have been more than 70 deaths. So far, the demonstrations show no sign of letting up -- in fact, they seem to be growing stronger. Mubarak has withdrawn the hated security police from the streets now and replaced them with the army (which is more respected by the people) in an effort to calm things down. So far, it has not worked. The demonstrations continue and the curfew the government imposed continues to be ignored by the demonstrators.

So far, the army has shown restraint. They are trying to protect Egypt's landmarks and treasures, but have not tried to control the demonstrators or shoot at them. It looks like the army may be trying to stay neutral in the conflict (even though a few members of the army have actually sided with the demonstrators).

For his part, Mubarak is doing his best to hold on to power. It looks like he may have given up his hope of letting his son assume power when he dies. He has dismissed his cabinet and appointed his former intelligence chief to be his vice-president (who would presumably now be the heir apparent to power). He has also promised unspecified reforms.

If Mubarak thought those pitiful moves would calm the people, he was sadly mistaken. The demonstrators have not been pacified, and there is no reason they should be. Why should they trade one tyrant for another, and the feeble promise of future changes? Frankly, it looks like Mubarak's tyrannical rule has come to an end.

Anything could still happen in Tunisia and Egypt. They could be on the road to democracy, or they could be headed for another dictatorship (either a theistic or military one). It's too early to tell. But one thing is very certain. The United States should back off and let the people of those countries determine their own fates. And if the unrest spreads to other Arab countries (like Algeria, Yemen, Jordan or Saudi Arabia), we should stay out of the internal workings of those countries also.

The United States has a past policy of trying to interfere in other countries and trying to dictate to them what kind of government they should have. This has never worked out well, and Iraq and Afghanistan are perfect recent examples of that. Usually we just create a lot of bad feelings and insure we have another enemy rather than a possible friend.

Take Iran for example. Years ago they had a thriving democracy. But it was a leftist democracy that wouldn't let American corporations take advantage of them, so our CIA overthrew their democratic government and installed the Shah -- a pro-Western tyrant. This led directly to his overthrow years later, which resulted in the current theistic autocracy there and insured they would consider the U.S. to be an enemy.

Will the coming governments of Tunisia and Egypt (and maybe some other Arab countries) be our friend or our enemy? I don't know (and neither does anyone else). But there is a much greater chance of them being a friend if we stay out of their business. And it has the further advantage of being the right thing to do. Wouldn't it be nice to do the right thing for once instead of the corporate thing?