Well the protests in the Middle east are still on-going and I have yet to see anyone burning an American Flag which is quite a nice change of pace. The question is how long will this last? People have been criticizing the US for supporting the existing Egyptian government over the years but what was Washington suppose to do. Implement "regime change" in Egypt or Tunisia? I think it is better that the US government withhold comment until after the crisis is over. Don't give either side in the conflict a way to bring the US into the middle of the ongoing madness. The US can adjust their foreign policy accordingly once the fighting stops.
The fact is that Egypt was not a traditional US client state. Up until the 70's Egypt was a Soviet client state. It was the Soviets who armed Egypt with the advanced weapons used against Israel in the 73 war. The US was muddled in Vietnam at the time and was not on the scene. The US eventually helped re-supply the Israelis but it was a close thing. Both the Israeli and US intelligence services dropped the ball and were blindsided by the Arab attack. Before the attack the Soviets had supplied Egypt with the most advanced anti-tank,anti-air weapon systems, and night vision technology available at the time. It also gave the Soviets the chance to test their SAM technology for the first time in a real war environment. The fact that the Arabs were still defeated says more about Arab military ineptitude than it does does about Israeli military skill. After the war Egypt sued for peace with Israel in return for the Israelis returning the Sinai back to Egypt. Egypt was the only middle east country smart enough to engage the Israelis and create a treaty that has lasted over 20 years. Sadat was enlightened enough to understand that the "Palestinians" were never going to recover their so called country so with that determination he decided to move on. If the rest of the Arab world been brave enough to follow Sadat's lead I think the middle east would be a much different place today. It's ironic that Mubarak came to power because of that assassination and he unleashed brutal attacks on those Islamists that were responsible for the assassination and he has never stopped his persecution of the Muslim Brotherhood and their supporters. I have no doubt living under his rule has been hard for some people. However I don't think you can always believe all of the criticism hurled at him and his regime. The Islamist in the population know how to manipulate the press and through the press manipulate world opinion to achieve their goals which is nothing short of the implementation of an Islamic government. Stir up enough of the regular population and point them to the protests and they can weaken the government and provide the opportunity for the Islamist takeover. The same thing happened in Iran. The population does have valid complaints that should be addressed but they are also susceptible to manipulation themselves.
The fact is that Egypt has never given Washington a reason for complaint so why should the US make any effort to harm Egypt's government. It's not the US governments primary role to care about the well being of citizens from another country. Their job is to care about US citizens. It's up to the citizens in their own countries to control their own destiny and if the succeed for the better that is good and if they fail to achieve their goals it is all their fault and can't be blamed on the US or ant other foreign power.
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