Egypt's 'revolution' and global Dad

Ben Stein points out that no matter how the Egyptian 'revolution' turns out, the US is going to be unpopular.

Let's take it point by point. No matter how this turns out, it's not going to be good for America. The people in Cairo, Alexandria, and Suez demonstrating against Mubarak are not Jefferson, Madison, and Washington. They are not liberal democrats and believers in universal human rights. In the final analysis, they are not going to be pals of the United States or our only reliable friend in the area, Israel.

Dwight Eisenhower, a genuinely great President, stood up boldly against Israeli, French, and British seizure of the Suez Canal in an effort to befriend Egypt. Gamal Abdel Nasser and his Egyptians responded by kicking us in the teeth every chance they could. If there has been a fundamental change in the Egyptians' attitudes towards the U.S., it has been subtle indeed. Maybe too subtle to be detected.

This is the way it is when you're global dad.  Egypt is an adolescent country and dang it, they just resent us for being dad. Global dad has all the power and money and he's always telling you what to do and he won't leave you alone and every time you do something wrong he gets after you.  Global teens wish global dad would just buzz off.

Unlike the US, other developed countries like the UK or Canada get to play the role of global "uncle".  Uncles are cool and let you do stuff that you shouldn't do and don't tell your dad when you do them.  You like hangin' with uncle Canada.  But of course uncle Canada knows that if he were dad, he'd have to be a lot tougher.  He is secretly thankful that dad as the tough job but also resents his big brother a bit too:  after all global dad is the patriarch of the family and everything important goes through him.

So no matter what happens anywhere global dad knows this for certain:  1. We'll be dragged into the controversy and be expected to sort it out and 2. We'll be blamed by everyone.  For being too harsh and too lenient, for siding with one side or the other, for being wrong or being too right.

But as much as we wish there was, there just isn't anyone else to do the job.  And there are many little ones in this world that need protection from bigger crueler countries.  God gave us a job to do, so it's best we stopped whining and got it done.

Sigh.