Once in a while unforeseen events throw into relief profound shifts in the geopolitical order. This is what has happened as the Arab uprising has swept into Egypt from Tunisia. The popular challenge to autocratic rulers has put paid to the notion that the Middle East is indifferent to freedom. It has incidentally exposed the delusions of the west.
A kind description of the response in Washington and elsewhere to the insurrection against Hosni Mubarak would be that it has been tortured. Only when the Egyptian president said he would stand down did Americans and Europeans begin to catch up with the aspirations of the pro-democracy movement. Only when violence erupted in Tahrir Square did they toughen the language.
Taken unawares, the west has temporised. The US wants an “orderly transition”, though it remains vague as to what. Britain, France and Germany favour free and fair elections – as long, that is, as the ballot box does not legitimise Islamists such as the Muslim Brotherhood.
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