The Obama administration is once again immersed in a political tragedy in Egypt largely of its own making.  How it will play out is largely anyone’s guess, but President Obama seems destined to make the same silly mistakes in international diplomacy that have plagued previous administrations.  Mind you, his motives may be well-intended, but trying to be on the “right side of history” often leads to the blood of others to be shed.

Other than politicians who have no sense of irony, I find it ironic that the Obama administration and the accompanying media who seemed so enamored of the Twitter-fueled revolution that brought down President Mubarak  should now be seeking shelter in the embrace of yet another Egyptian military dictatorship.    Of course, we don’t want to call it a dictatorship and curtail aid, but it seems that this military dictatorship is preferable to the Obama administration than the Bush administration’s dictator.   Um….

While I don’t have a clue what is going on in Egypt – certainly anymore so than Tweety-bird Wolf Blitzer of CNN – I am quite familiar with dictatorships.   They aren’t fun.   Deciding on which dictator is better than another is a fool’s errand and best left to historians after the dust settles.   Didn’t we choose the better dictator  in Vietnam?

Clearly, the events in Egypt are a tragedy, but self-serving comments by the Obama administration that has stood-by while 100,000 people have died in Syria is sophomoric in its cynicism and hypocrisy.

Sure, let’s keep our troops at home.   But please!:   Let’s curb our penchant for meddling is situations we don’t understand and, most certainly, can’t influence.

Save the “tough talk” for the 200,000 or so veterans suffering from PTS who have fought wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.    These brave and often troubled young men and women certainly deserve our compassion.   More importantly, they happen to be living in the United States.

Richard W. May

STFF