Pharoh Mubarak, let your people go!

As Max Boot opines in the LA Times, what are we doing with Egypt being considered an 'ally'?

If our goal is to bring freedom to the oppressed citizens of Islam, shouldn't we be demanding it of our allies as well as liberating our enemies?

Egypt gets billions of dollars in aid a year, but can't stand a free election. They are called ally yet scream anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism in their news. They're called friend but imprision people with a critical voice like blogger Alaa Ahmed Seif al-Islam.

What's going on are two forces combining into an ugly reality.

First, there's the old wartime schtick of 'my enemy's enemy'. Mubarak is opposed to al-Qaeda, evidenced by their repeated bombings of Egypt's resorts, so the 'real-politik' demand is to treat him as a friend. Just like we did with Pinochet, Batista, Noriega, Saddam, Suharto, etc. Old diplomacy dies hard I guess.

Second, tyrants like Mubarak read our news. They're smart, and they see the al-Qaeda backing Left ripping apart anything in this country they can get their hands on. And they know that Bush is out of office in January 2009 (or sooner if Pelosi (D-al Qaeda) gets her way.) They just have to bide their time while their fronts like the NY Times sells their tens of millions of people into perpetual bondage just because the Left hates Bush.

So our State Dept is playing it's old games, and our internal opposition has turned so collaborationist that our enemies just have to wait.

Because until we get our act together, there'll be no promised land to lead these people to. We need to demand our 'friends' take this time and our largesse to peacefully transition into free societies.