Reply #56: I never begrudged the adminstration being respectful of Mubarak.

[burning rain]

Not even when Biden rejected the label "dictator" as applied to Mubarak. The US needs to retain credibility with its allies, even those who are bums, and you don't accomplish that by rubbishing them in public, even when you'd rather see the back of them. The administration did what it needed to do, in my view, emphasizing that there had better be no violent crackdown on the demonstrators, thereby helping ensure that they had some safety to pursue the peaceful ouster of the Mubarak regime, if they could manage it. It'll be interesting to see what, if any, explicit warnings are discovered to have been made to the US aid-dependent Egyptian military that they would forfeit US assistance in the event they descended on the protestors.

Beyond that, I don't see much of a role for the US, certainly not forcing change where there isn't organic support, as our neocon friends advocate. But to the extent that we can use our good offices to protect organic pro-democracy movements from suppression, I'm all for it.