Obama Missed a 'Tear Down This Wall' Moment

Summary


Iraqis and Americans must be watching the events in Egypt together with ironic dismay. It took the Egyptians 18 days of grit to achieve what America tried to do in Iraq with eight years of war: bring down a dictator and usher in a transition to democracy.

President Obama was provided an opportunity to do what his predecessor tried without resorting to brazen adventurism with steep costs in blood and treasure. Yet, with deep regret, Obama's handling of the Egyptian revolution will go down in history as a moment when America stalled. It was a missed opportunity to seize the moment for a genuine transition in American relations with the Middle East, a transformation that could have finally aligned its democratic ideals with its practical, legitimate interests in the region.

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Extract


Obama Missed a 'Tear Down This Wall' Moment

Traditional American foreign policy calls for aid to client dictatorships, favoring stability at the cost of local aspirations for freedom. This dangerous paradigm led Lawrence Wright to claim in th...

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