The protests currently gripping Egypt caught everyone, including President Obama, off guard. While it’s been good to see the Obama administration coming out more strongly behind the protesters’ democratic demands, warning longtime U.S. ally Hosni Mubarak away from a violent crackdown, and having no less than Secretary of State Hillary Clinton calling for an orderly “transition to democracy” (a welcome sign the administration is thinking seriously about a post-Mubarak Egypt) — it is imperative the administration provide a more robust and strategic response to these events, given what a new Egypt could portend for the entire region.
The above excerpt was originally published in The American Prospect.
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