Egypt punditocracy
...it's been interesting to watch. A lot of Neocons (Jackson Diehl, Michael Gerson, at WashPo) have basically revived Bush-era chest-thumping, as if the imminent regime change (is it safe to say that yet? I predict yes, now that the army has refused to fire on the protesters - we won't see a Tiananmen Square/June 4th Incident here, I hope) justifies Bush's errant foreign policy. But the Democrats in the White House and at Foggy Bottom have been pretty wishy-washy. This is not true all over the papers; the very left Anne Appelbaum wrote a lovely piece in Slate telling Obama to ditch Mubarak:
http://www.slate.com/id/2283108/
But the best piece I've read, by Ross Douthat (who is often wrong but always thoughtful), takes a concerned, but pragmatic, and quite Christian stance:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/31/opinion/31douthat.html?hp
I write "Christian," because Douthat speaks in the spirit of Johann Georg Hamann, who was a big fan of Hume, and took that to the extreme of asserting humanity's inability to really manipulate anything without the grace of God. "Without God, I cannot eat an egg."
It's been particularly interesting to watch coverage on tv while at the gym. I'm amazed at the hostility that even CNN or MSNBC have towards the protests and relatively kind words ("friend," "trusted ally") for Mubarak, who is a dictator, a thug, a strongman. These programs are trying to alarm Americans and make them fear the "right side of history."
Anyways. I am amazed these protests have come so far, and hope they go farther, without bloodshed.
http://www.slate.com/id/2283108/
But the best piece I've read, by Ross Douthat (who is often wrong but always thoughtful), takes a concerned, but pragmatic, and quite Christian stance:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/31/opinion/31douthat.html?hp
I write "Christian," because Douthat speaks in the spirit of Johann Georg Hamann, who was a big fan of Hume, and took that to the extreme of asserting humanity's inability to really manipulate anything without the grace of God. "Without God, I cannot eat an egg."
It's been particularly interesting to watch coverage on tv while at the gym. I'm amazed at the hostility that even CNN or MSNBC have towards the protests and relatively kind words ("friend," "trusted ally") for Mubarak, who is a dictator, a thug, a strongman. These programs are trying to alarm Americans and make them fear the "right side of history."
Anyways. I am amazed these protests have come so far, and hope they go farther, without bloodshed.