News

WASHINGTON — Egypt's political unrest leaves Washington torn between
freedom-seeking protesters and a government that has been a vital ally
-- a dilemma with deep implications for its troubled Middle East policy.

Egyptian
President Hosni Mubarak has been a fulcrum of US regional strategy for
decades, a guarantor of his nation's peace with US ally Israel and a
central player in successive and frustrated American peace initiatives.

But
with his 30-year rule seemingly under threat, amid talk of a possible
"Arab spring" of revolt against authoritarian rulers, US policymakers
must pick their way through a political minefield.

"They are in a
difficult position because there is all sorts of momentum in Egypt --
and in Washington people think that the dominoes just are going to
fall," said Gregory Gause of the University of Vermont.

"I think they are probably pulled in two directions," Gause, a political science professor said.

More
optimistic US cheerleaders, including neo-conservative remnants of the
George W. Bush administration, will increasingly demand robust support
of protestors, hoping for a wave of democratic change in the Middle
East.

And should tens of thousands of Egyptian pro-democracy
protesters violently clash with security forces built with $1.3 billion
in annual US military ai... >>>