Today, word has come that Hosni Mubarak will be released, cleared of his corruption charge, and surely this government will not hold him accountable for the killing of protesters, given the blood that flows in Egypt’s streets.
The turmoil in Egypt is matched by this story, in which the CIA admitted what we all knew – it was behind the 1953 Iranian coup that put the Shah onto the throne. I don’t feel like that really worked out well for U.S. interests.
It’s enough to make one become an isolationist. Instead, I think about universal human rights and their defense, not as a doctrine when “if X happens then we must invade,” but as a set of principles that must always guide our actions and shape our engagement with other nations.