On January 25, inspired by the recent popular generally peaceful uprising in Tunisia, Egyptians started taking to the streets in large numbers to protest the government of President Hosni Mubarak, who has ruled the country for over three decades.  Long reliant on both historical tourism and US aid, Egypt came to a virtual standstill as students, shopkeepers, workers and families came together to protest government corruption, overall poverty and high unemployment. Many Americans have not been particularly aware of events in Egypt.  However, reaction in the government has been mixed.  President Obama has publicly called for a peaceful and orderly transition that will include free and fair elections but has not suggested a timetable.  Massachusetts Senator John Kerry and Arizona Senator John McCain put forward a non-binding resolution demanding that President Mubarak step down immediately, but this only adds their voices to those in Tahrir Square.  As Mubarak has enforced peace with Israel during his tenure despite occasional protests against such, there are Israelis who are nervous about a populist fundamentalist Muslim uprising that would destroy three decades of peace.  This has come back to US politicians, who have trouble weighing democracy versus the stability of Israel. For all that the United States is a democratic republic, our country has not had a solid record of supporting democracy around the world.  The early years of the Cold War saw US covert actions that aided or organized coups of democratically elected governments in both the Middle East and Latin America.  This was the start of a decades-long trend of overthrowing foreign governments that were unfriendly toward the US or looked like they potentially could be unfriendly.  This makes no sense from the standpoint of promoting democracy.  After all, we are a democratic republic and ostensibly want people to be as free as we are.  We do not all agree with each other here in the US – see Tea Party versus GOP versus Democrats versus Green Party versus Libertarians – but we do generally agree to disagree civilly.  This seems to go out the window when it comes to dealing fairly with other countries.  Our actions do make sense from a stability standpoint, however.  The United States has been the most powerful country in the world for nearly seventy years and wants to maintain itself at the top.  Keeping order in the world, preferably an order friendly to US interests, ensures that the US will stay on top if all other factors stay stable – they haven’t, but that’s another column. The Middle East has thousands of years of history; remembering events from the last century, arguably the most heavily documented time in human events, is not hard.  Many are wary about US involvement in the region, and justifiably so.  While President Obama is not foolish enough to prop up the Mubarak regime any more, he will need to tread very carefully to balance the needs of the Egyptian people with the US desire for stability in the region.  So far he seems to be doing well.  While he has not publicly called for Mubarak to step down immediately, The New York Times and Al Jazeera reports suggest he might be doing so privately.