Egyptian Chocolate

Have you ever had a friend with lots of chocolate who didn't share it with anyone but you? Everyone knew that he was horribly selfish, but you didn't really care because, hey, you love chocolate! And when everyone else started starving while you and your friend became mildly obese on the abundant flow of rich cacao, it still didn't matter because, hey, you love chocolate! Then one day the poor, starving people started to demand chocolate from your friend. They said "it's not fair! The only reason he has chocolate is because he keeps stealing it from us! Look-we have proof!" (Cue black-and-white security tape of friend commandeering a Hershey truck). They start calling him a tyrant and a thief. And, well, you still love chocolate, but you don't want the people to see how fat you've become from all that delicious, creamy goodness. So you start to distance yourself from your friend. Heck, after a few days you've lost enough weight that you're hanging out with your newfound friends and calling him a thieving tyrant yourself!

Perhaps you haven't had a friend such as this, but the United States of America sure has. And his big fat name is Hossni Mubarak.

Remember when democracy in the Middle East was the foreign policy American dream? Well, it turns out that democracy is a privilege of the chosen few, allowed only if The People can promise to vote in America's interest. Unfortunately the USA has a poor track record of supporting oppressive dictators in the name of its own stability and strategic needs. Then, once their cover is blown (they've been getting fat on chocolate, too!), they are relatively quick to backtrack and denounce their BFF as an oppressive violator of human rights.

This isn't to suggest that Mubarak is not a thieving tyrant who steals the people's chocolate because indeed, he is. It's just that we never seem to blame the friend's friend who got fat on the stolen chocolate (AKA oil, CIA dirty work, War on Terror, Israel, etc.) How can the US be such an advocate of democracy while simultaneously supporting an authoritarian leader who denigrates all notions of democracy?

It doesn't seem too long ago that this nation initiated an all-out war in order to overthrow a dictator and instill democracy. Now how is it that this dictator was so heinous while for 30 years the US administration had been puckering up to Mubarak, an only slightly-less evil version of the aforementioned? And if memory serves us correctly, it wasn't too long ago that Saddam was America's BFF when it was time to fight Iran (circa 1980)...

Ah yes, it seems that democracy is a strategy rather than an ideology for some in the USA. I guess it's time to go on a diet.