Most recently the question is being asked about Syria. Before, we wondered about the rebels in Libya. Before that, Egypt. The U.S. is winging it.
Instead, we should be articulating guidelines that answer consistently the questions: Who should we support in the Middle East? The aging autocrats or rebels we know little about and who may erect Taliban-like regimes? The Sunni or the Shia? The Kurds or the Turks? And so on.
As I see it, we should support all regimes, democratic or not, that refrain from brutalizing their people, like the government of Jordan. And we should support all uprisings that rely on nonviolence, as Egypt's did, whether or not the new regime they seek is democratic. In other words, we should stand for a nonviolent but pluralistic Middle East in which a variety of regimes might evolve...
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