Matthew Duss says the United States must now develop a coherent approach to the fact of political Islam.
The protests currently gripping Egypt caught everyone, including President Obama, off guard. While it’s been good to see the Obama administration coming out more strongly behind the protesters’ democratic demands, warning longtime U.S. ally Hosni Mubarak away from a violent crackdown, and having no less than Secretary of State Hillary Clinton calling for an orderly “transition to democracy” (a welcome sign the administration is thinking seriously about a post-Mubarak Egypt) — it is imperative the administration provide a more robust and strategic response to these events, given what a new Egypt could portend for the entire region.
President Obama himself provided a blueprint for this new approach in his June 2009 Cairo speech. Many progressives, this writer included, were thrilled by what we saw as that speech’s promise to move away from a Middle East policy in which political freedom was subordinated to the perceived imperatives of counter-radicalism, and toward a more measured opening of political systems to greater participation and accountability. Progressives have been likewise disappointed at the lack of follow through. These continuing uprisings offer the president an opportunity to make good on that promise.
