As my other recent blog posts make clear, I'm on vacation, although I've been watching the news tonight. That said, I do want to state for the record my support for demanding restraint and not interfering if President Mubarak is driven from power. I'd support Brian Katulis's suggestions as to where U.S. policy can go from here. I think the old 'stable' system is passing and we need to find ways to align U.S. policy with local self-determination as a bare minimum. Marc Lynch is somewhat sympathetic to President Obama's recent statements. Blake Hounshell, Foreign Policy Managing Editor, doesn't think we're going far enough by not explicitly calling for free and fair elections. That debate aside, I'm fairly pleased to see some prominent conservatives highly critical of Mubarak's response so far.
This isn't my region and I don't know the best way to calibrate the U.S. response. I still don't know what will happen and if you want to learn more you're better off reading the above sources and Al Jazeera than this blog. But ultimately my thoughts and hopes are with the courageous Egyptian protestors and I hope the people of Egypt have a chance to choose their own destiny.
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