Egypt's Obvious Lesson  However things turn out in Egypt, the
nascent revolution that played out over the past few weeks is a
reminder of something that should have been obvious all along:
The political status quo in the Middle East is not sustainable
and won't be sustained.  Egypt, after all, is hardly the only
country in the region with an unpopular authoritarian government
aligned with and supported by the United States. Nor is it the
only state in which American policy-makers fear that the
practical alternative to the current leadership is Islamists
likely to be unsympathetic to American geopolitical goals.
That's Egypt, yes. But it's also Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the West
Bank, and the small Persian Gulf states. The first problem with
the U.S.' foreign-policy approach with these states is that you
can't just count on unpopular regimes staying in power forever.
And the second problem is that the longer the U.S. government
stays in bed with kleptocrats, the more severe popular
discontent against the United St