patrick.net

Yes American presidents should stand steadfastly by their friends even if they are on the way out. Because WE know best who should rule a country, not the people living there.

We stood by Batista, the Shah of Iran, and numerous other losers..... how'd those work out?

Well of course Obama is doing what is popular.
Standing back and delivering a monologue of what he expects other countries to do is easy.
Obama is hoping the problem will work its self out, and Mubarak will just quietly go away, and a nice Liberal Democratic government will just magically spring up in his place. And everyone will play nice and be good friends. That is dangerous and stupid.

Like we don't have enough sand spurs growing in the middle east as it is.

An ally is under attack and Obama and his team support the opposition. Throwing your ally under the bus is a trust busting measure. Having a rerun of the the Iranian situation is a probability and would be horrendous for the US.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

-- written by some radical proto-communist in the 18th century