I feel sorry for Joe Biden when Jon Stewart makes so much fun of him and then he – Joe that is – says that Mubarak is not a dictator and I think What a clueless – and, in the end, dangerous – goofball. And we help keep him in power – Mubarak, that is – with our desire for stability, our money, and our tear gas grenades.

We say that we are on the side of the Egyptians, but – it seems to me – we really aren't.  We are for stability, for order, for maintaining the status quo. When we attacked Iraq in 2003, the Marine commander's call sign was chaos – because, he said, the more chaotic the situation, the better we do – but that turned out to be idle chatter. When the battlefield turned chaotic, we couldn't adjust for years, despite out huge military superiority. 

John Kennedy said Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable. It seems to me that we – with our support of Arab dictators – are making peaceful  revolution very difficult.  When Jimmy Carter helps keep the Shah in power way past the Shah's due date, when the Palestiniann people vote in Hezbollah and we say we don't like your choice so we will not acknowledge it, when we say Mubarak is not a dictator after he has been in power for almost 30 years and is trying to put his son in power; we are not promoting peaceful change, we are not promoting democracy. 

It is sad and I wish my country were better at walking its talk.