Living our values

It would appear that the events in Egypt over the last three weeks have opened the floodgates for change in the Middle East. The world shared in all of the exhilarating highs and frustrating lows of Egypt’s rollercoaster ride to freedom, which ended—at least for now—when the long-serving President, Hosni Mubarak, ceded power last Friday. Now we wait.

In Egypt, a council of military leaders is overseeing the drafting of a new constitution that will be ready for public scrutiny soon, and which should include the democratic values and freedoms that so many Egyptians fiercely fought and bravely died for. We in the United States shared in their victory, even if we did much to jeopardize it and little to help it along. Indeed, the United States was almost on the wrong side of history.

In 2005, while in Egypt, Secretary of State Condeleeza Rice said, “For 60 years, my country, the United States, pursued stability at the expense of democracy in this region, here in the Middle East, and we achieved neither.” The United States’ premium on stability—often provided by autocracy—has resulted in stagnancy rather than prosperity in many parts of the Middle East, including Egypt. Egyptians, a moderately educated and deeply oppressed people, have finally broken free of the shackles we felt content not to unburden them of, and others will follow their example.

There have already been protests held in Bahrain and Iran inspired by Egypt’s model and infused with its spirit. We do not know how these will turn out, nor should we meddle in their affairs as we did in Iraq’s. Egypt’s recent success has provided the Muslim world with a new model for achieving freedom that resembles the revolutions that took place in 1989 as the Soviet Union was crumbling—revolutions from within. If the newly prosperous, peaceful and stable democracies of Eastern Europe are any indication, we can predict that short-term instability and popular protest will bring progress in many places, including the Middle East.

Stability is a necessary but not sufficient condition for prosperity. The Unites States should realize this and change its approach to fledgling democracy and democratic consciousness everywhere, especially in the Middle East. Pragmatism and idealism need not always be in conflict. We can promote our strategic interests and assert our values if decide to change our responses to potential revolutions like the one currently taking place in Egypt. We should not confuse a minor protest for a nation-changing revolution, but nor should we permit our values and the people who share them to be oppressed if they themselves are ready to die for them.

Freedom, dignity and justice are the values the United States stands for. But they are hardly the values the country has stood for in the Middle East, where its narrow strategic interests have made it an enemy of the people. As Americans, we should be critical of our government for its past shortsightedness and pressure our policy makers to change their response to future Tahrir Squares. We should value stability but realize that once the boat is rocked—as it was in Egypt with tremendous force—it would be foolish and hypocritical not to support peaceful popular protest. In the long run, short-term instability and uncertainty will be replaced by greater prosperity, peace and trust. Why work against these things when we can work for them? As the prominent Israeli, Natan Sharansky has said, “If the free world helps the people on the streets, and turns into the allies of these people instead of being the allies of the dictators, then there is a unique chance to build a new pact between the free world and the Arab world.”

In the coming weeks the United States will have ample opportunity to put this new kind of thinking into practice: toward Egypt, and other countries like Bahrain and Iran where the tides are turning. In America, we should no longer be content to passively watch as our values are denied to people who aspire to them. We need to live by our values if we expect other people to die for them.